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O.Pelton. 



MEMOIR 



EVER TON JUDSON, 



BY 



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E. P. BARROWS, Jr 



BOSTON: 

PUBLISHED BY CROCKER AND BREWSTER; 

47, Washington-street. 

1852, 



.«.«*»»! 




■J2B3 



WASHINOTOK] 



Entered according to an Act of Congress, in the year 1S52, 

BY C. L. LATIMER, 
In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of Massachusetts. 



PREFACE 



The materials for the following Memoir were 
mostly collected by the author in the summers 
of 1849 and 1850, during the brief intervals of 
leisure then enjoyed by him. But the pressure 
of his official labors has prevented him from ar- 
ranging them in a proper form for publication 
before the present year. To the numerous friends 
of Mr. Judson who have contributed, partly by 
epistolary correspondence, but principally by per- 
sonal interviews, to complete the portraiture, he 
tenders his sincere thanks; and he ventures to 
hope that his statements of facts will be found 
to be, by their aid, in all important particulars; 
accurate. Few understand the amount of labor 
necessary to exclude errors from even a brief nar- 
rative ; and some of these, in respect to minor 
points, may have found their way into the fol- 



6 PREFACE. 

lowing pages. But the author is firm in the be- 
lief that the Memoir will be found to be, in the 
whole, what he has aimed to make it, historic, 
and not ideal: and he now commits it to the 
public with the hope and prayer that it may con- 
tribute to perpetuate not the memory alone, but 
(which is the chief thing) the usefulness of his 
much lamented friend. 

Sept. 1, 1852. 



CONTENTS 



Introduction ...... 13 

CHAPTER I. 

Mr. Jtidsoii's youth and conversion. — His parentage — his pater- 
nal and maternal grand-fathers — his parents — anecdote of his 
mother in New York Evangelist — traits of his youthful char- 
acter — his conversion and activity in religious meetings — 
teaches a school in Sherman, Ct. — notice of his school by one 
who attended it 19 

CHAPTER II. 

His preparation for the ministry, including his collegiate and the- 
ological course. — Turns his thoughts to the work of the minis- 
try — his doubts respecting his qualifications for that office — 
hurried and imperfect preparation for College — character and 
standing in College — extreme diffidence and retiring habits in 
College, and in the Theological Seminary — religious activity 
in both — efforts for the colored population of New Haven — 
holds religious meetings in the vicinity of New Haven — notice 
ofoneofth«se 28 

CHAPTER III. 

His licensure and Sabbath School agency. — Receives licensure 
at the close of his second year in theology — general interest at 
this time in behalf of the West— offers his services in connec- 



O CONTENTS. 

tion with Mr. Barber to the Amerinan Sunday School Union — 
letter to his father in reference to this step — the two friends 
repair to Philadelphia to receive their commission and outfit — 
Southern Ohio assigned as their field of labor — their first plan 
of operation — Mr. Judson's account of his first reception in 
Ohio — they adopt a new plan of labor — its efficiency and suc- 
cessful results — Mr. Judson is laid aside by sickness — returns 
to Woodbury in feeble health — depression of spirits — remarka- 
ble incident connected with this 38 

CHAPTER IV. 

His location in Milan, with an account of his labors in Berlin. — 
Offers himself to the American Home Missionary Society — 
is assigned to Marion County, Ohio — providential events that 
guided him to Milan — influences that repelled him from Ma- 
rion county — correspondence with Mr. Barber on the subject 
— sickness in Milan — decides to remain in Milan — preaches 
every third Sabbath in Berlin. 

Notice of the Congregational Church in that place — success 
of his labors in Berlin — his account of the Sabbath school 
there — erection of a new house of worship — his liberality on 
this occasion — discontinues his labors in Berlin — solicitude for 
the Church in that place 49 

CHAPTER V. 

His labors in Milan till the Fall of 1831, with a notice of the part 
he bore in protracted meetings. — Notice of the Congregational 
Church in Milan — its organization at Spears' Corners — form 
of government changed to Presbyterian in 1S25 — changed 
back to Congregational in 1S30— Mr Judson's first discourse 
in Milan — ardor with which he commenced his work — 
abundance of his labors — fresh attack of the ague — revival 
in 1830 and 1831— extracts from his reports in the Home 
Missionary. 

Notice of his labors in protracted meetings — change of his 
views in regard to " new measures " — engages with Mr. Con- 
ger in protracted meetings— extent of his labors — discontinues 
them — reasons of this discontinuance — how he fell into the 
habit of preaching unwritten sermons 62 



CONTENTS. 9 

CHAPTER VI. 

Continuation of his labors in Milan till the close of the year 1836. 
— Plans the Huron Institute — letter to Mr. Barber on this sub- 
ject — the Institute located at Milan — superintends the erection 
of the edifice — Mr. Barber removes to Milan — his congrega- 
tion commence worshiping in the Institute — revival of 1S33 — 
notice of this in Matheson and Reed's Visit to the American 
Churches — Mr. Judson's marriage — plan for a new house of 
worship — part Mr. Judson bore in this enterprise, with remarks 
on the same — the congregation remove to the basement of the 
Church — protracted meeting — results — remarks on these re- 
sults — effect on Mr. Judson's views. 75 

CHAPTER VII. 

From the beginning of 1837 to the close of his public labors in 
December 1847. — Dedication of the new Church — Mr. Judson 
returns to written sermons — gives increased attention to read- 
ing — enlarges the range of his pulpit themes — is installed as 
pastor of the Congregational Church in Milan — previous views 
on the subject of installation — effect of these various changes 
on his pulpit ministrations — introduces Bible classes — his care- 
ful preparation for these — courses of sermons — extent of his 
labors during this period — seasons of special religious interest 
— in 1839 and 40 — in 1846 — his own account of the progress of 
his Church. 

Notice of his connection with Western Reserve College — 
elected a Trustee of the College in 1842 — declines a perma- 
nent agency for the College — reasons — takes a temporary 
agency — results. 91 

CHAPTER VIII. 

Review of his public life. — General remarks. .... 103 

Section 1. — Mr. Judson as a preacher. — Remarks on his two- 
fold change, from written to unwritten discourses, and from 
unwritten to written— the general question of the comparative 
advantages of written and unwritten sermons considered — 
simplicity and transparency of his style— its animated and 
graphic character— sarcasm— habit of introducing into his dis- 
courses the results of his reading — simplicity in the arrange- 



10 CONTENTS. 

ment of his sermons — dislike of expository discourses — variety 
of topics— extracts from his article in the Biblical Repository 
on this subject — peculiar habit of preparing sermons — disas- 
trous result of this — length of his discourses — views in the- 
ology . . . . . . . . 104 

Section 2. — Mr. Judson as a pastor.— His excellence in this 
respect connected with the steady growth of his Church — 
his whole-hearted devotion to the pastoral work — watchful 
care of his flock — intimate knowledge of his people — habit in 
respect to absentees from his Church — watchfulness in respect 
to strangers — visitations — his caution to pastors in this respect 
— ability to discern and forestall rising trouble — his sound 
judgment and fertility of resources — tact in approaching men 
of all classes — first point of contact with the irreligious — assi- 
duity in visiting the sick — great success in improving afflic- 
tions — his views on this point — indirect way of encountering 
error — care in respect to the reading of his congregation — 
high sense of his rights as a pastor — treatment of intruders — 
paramount influence in his parish — care to consult the leading 
men of his congregation — seasons of depression — unhappy in- 
fluence of these 132 

Section 3 — Mr. Judson in ecclesiastical meetings. — His public 
spirit — great influence in ecclesiastical meetings — testimony 
on this point — his caution in respect to points which he wished 
to carry — impetuosity towards opponents — his relation to the 
Ministers' meeting — views of Church polity. .... 156 

Section 4. — His efforts for the young. — His way of addressing 
the young— solicitude to interest them in religious services — 
efforts to bring young men into the Huron Institute with a 
view to their preparation for the ministry — his fatherly interest 
in such — it followed them through their whole course of study 
— testimony on this point — children of others received into his 
family— his mode of repelling undue familiarity — review of his 
labors for Western Reserve College 161 

Section 5. — His position in regard to questions of reform. — 
His decided stand on the temperance question — sympathy for 
the colored population — joins the Huron County Anti-Slavery 
Society — leaves it when it takes a political aspect — his position 
in this respect — in questions of reform looks at realities — 
anecdote ISO 



CONTENTS. 11 

CHAPTER IX. 

His last sickness and death. — General view of his health — symp- 
toms of apoplexy begin to appear — does not relax his labors- 
extra service in Cleveland — severe effort upon his return to 
Milan — the attaek of apoplexy — 6ets out on a journey to the 
Eastern States — sudden and entire change of symptoms — his 
letter from Green's Farms — proseeutes his journey without 
benefit — returns to Milan — his disease assumes its final form. 

The closing scene — general view of his last hours — spirit 
with which he bore his sufferings — his own reflections on his 
ministry — composure in prospect of death — parting intercourse 
with his people — his dying messages — exhorts his ministerial 
brethren to increased earnestness — solieitude respecting a suc- 
cessor — his death 184 

CHAPTER X. 

General estimate ef his character. — The elements ©f a strong 
character considered — Mr. Judson possessed these elements ; 
— 1. Great motive power — consequent impetuosity — 2. Tena- 
city of purpose — 3. High intellectual powers— their sphere was 
practical life — elements of his power in deliberative assem- 
blies — capacity of gaining access to the minds of others — busi- 
ness talents. 

Subordinate traits of character — great plainness of speech — 
generosity — social disposition — his views on social gatherings 
— jocularity and sarcasm. 

General complexion of his piety — it was solid and practical 
in its eharaeter — his views respecting high- wrought exercises 
— he held the great doctrines of grace in a practical way — his 
adaptedness to the field of labor assigned to him by God's 
providence. 197 



INTRODUCTION 



The genuine feelings of the christian heart are 
expressed by the Apostle, when he says, " None of 
us liveth to himself, and no man dieth to himself. 
For whether we live, we live unto the Lord ; and 
whether we die, we die unto the Lord : whether 
we live, therefore, or die, we are the Lord's." It 
is the prayer of every true believer, that not his 
life only, but also his death may be " unto the 
Lord." If he hopes after death to be himself at 
rest with Christ, he also hopes to leave behind him 
in the world an influence which shall bring others 
to Christ. His brethren who remain yet for a sea- 
son on earth, sympathizing with him in this the 
strongest desire of his heart, are anxious to use in 
the most effective way his past life and labors for 
advancing the kingdom of their common Lord. 
All religious biographies should have this for their 
end. To gratify the feelings of surviving friends 
is not a worthy motive for the expenditure of time 
and toil in their preparation. If they cannot be 
2 



14 INTRODUCTION. 

made subservient to the interests of Christ's 
Church, they were better omitted. 

But, that they may accomplish this high end, it 
is necessary that they be strictly conformed to 
truth. The biography must present not an ideal 
of the man, but, as far as possible, the very man 
himself, as he lived and moved about in society. 
Thus much may, indeed, be conceded, that his 
faults should be touched with a friendly hand, and 
dwelt upon only so far as the exhibition of them 
shall be necessary to a correct understanding of 
his history with the lessons of instruction which it 
contains. But they should not be denied or con- 
cealed ; nor should his virtues, on the other hand, 
be exaggerated, so as to produce a false picture of 
his character. For it is reality, not fiction, that 
moves the human mind to emulation. The exhi- 
bition in actual life of the christian graces, though 
they be in comparatively feeble measure and al- 
loyed with many imperfections, has far more 
power than any high-wrought portraitures of ideal 
excellence ; which, indeed, precisely because they 
are the products of imagination instead of history, 
are regarded as above the range of human attain- 
ments, and, consequently, though they may elicit 
much admiration as works of art, excite to imita- 
tion only in a feeble degree. Consider for a mo- 
ment how the life of Christ, as given by the four 
Evangelists, would be shorn of its mighty power 
over the human heart, could we even but suspect 
it of being ideal, and not strictly historic. Or, to 



INTRODUCTION. 15 

take an example from a man like ourselves, con- 
sider how the Apostle Paul's influence over the 
churches, as a christian man, would be, for all 
practical purposes, annihilated, were the record of 
his life and labors and sufferings believed to be a 
romance instead of a reality. In character and 
morals it is by what we know to exist as a part of 
history, rather than by what some genius can con- 
ceive to exist, that our spirits are stirred within us 
to emulation. 

It follows that no man is worthy of having his 
biography written, who has not strength enough 
of character to be described as he is. If, in order 
to make out an interesting and attractive memoir, 
it be necessary to falsify and exaggerate the facts 
of his history and character, then let his memory 
rest with his ashes in quiet oblivion. The cause 
of truth needs no such helps. A truly strong char- 
acter, when faithfully exhibited with its real ex- 
cellencies and defects, always produces a salutary 
impression upon the reader's mind. So are the 
ancient worthies presented to us in the Holy 
Scriptures for our instruction. 

From what has been said, the reader will natu- 
rally infer that the author considers the person 
whose biography he now presents to the public, 
as having been a man worthy to be described as 
he was, without the embellishments of fiction. In 
this inference he will be entirely correct. Mr. Jud- 
son, with some faults which — such was his native 
openness of spirit — he took no pains to hide be- 



16 INTRODUCTION. 

hind a smooth exterior, possessed rare excellencies 
and great force of character. Not to anticipate 
the proof of this, which will be found in the fol- 
lowing memoir, it is sufficient here to refer to 
what he accomplished, and to the influence which 
he exerted. The Church in Milan, he found in a 
feeble and broken condition ; he left it, after nine- 
teen years of ministerial labor, one of the strongest 
and most flourishing churches on the Western 
Reserve : during the whole of this period, charac- 
terized, as all know, by strong excitement, and 
abounding in causes of alienation and division, he 
ever maintained a paramount sway over the minds 
of his people, young and old ; and succeeded in 
either keeping out of his parish or counteracting 
those influences which, in so many other churches, 
led to disunion and separation : nor was his a 
waning power ; on the contrary, it steadily grew 
with the growth of the community in which he 
lived, and the congregation to which he minister- 
ed ; and when he fell, smitten by the hand of dis- 
ease, he fell in his full strength, in the very zenith 
of his influence. He was the father of the Huron 
Institute, and, while he was able to superintend 
its affairs, he gave to it a remarkable degree of 
efficiency and success : especially was he success- 
ful in gaining the confidence of the young, and 
directing them into paths of piety and usefulness ; 
and it is conceded that no pastor in Northern Ohio 
was the means of putting so many young men 
into the ministry. His counsel was ever highly 



INTRODUCTION. 17 

prized and abundantly sought by all, even by those 
who did not sympathize with him in his religious 
views: in the ecclesiastical and ministerial bodies 
with which he was connected, as well as in the 
Board of Trustees of the Western Reserve Col- 
lege, he ever maintained a high place, and showed 
himself a most efficient and useful member. A man 
who could, in troublous times, gain and hold such 
influence, and accomplish such results, must have 
possessed no ordinary force of character. It is 
from the persuasion that the exhibition of this 
character in a brief memoir will furnish salutary 
lessons of instruction, that the author has been in- 
duced to undertake the work. 

That all will be satisfied with the manner of its 
execution, is more than he dares to hope. To Mr. 
Judson's ardent friends, who were admitted to in- 
timate converse with him — and it was in such in- 
timate converse that his excellencies peculiarly 
manifested themselves — the following pages may 
perhaps appear tame and spiritless ; because it is 
impossible adequately to describe upon paper a 
character like his. Others, again, who saw him 
only at a distance, where certainly he did not ap- 
pear to the best advantage, or who found them- 
selves brought into collision with him in respect 
to those principles and measures in which he dif- 
fered from them — a thing which could not but 
often happen in the case of one occupying his po- 
sition and living in his times — may think that his 
character is overdrawn. But the author commits 
2* 



18 INTRODUCTION. 

this memoir to the public, with the firm belief that 
it contains a just, though it may be in some re- 
spects inadequate, view of the man ; and, as such, 
his prayer to God is that it may be blessed as the 
means of propagating more extensively after his 
death that good influence which was so eminent 
in his life. 



MEMOIR 



CHAPTER I. 



MR. JUDSON's YOUTH, AND CONVERSION. 

Everton Judson, the subject of the following 
memoir, was the son of Asa and Sarah Judson, 
and was born in Woodbury, Connecticut, Decem- 
ber 8, 1799. He was descended on both sides 
from pious ancestors. His paternal grandfather, 
Benjamin Judson, is represented to have been an 
eminently devoted Christian. His maternal grand- 
father, Mathew Minor, held the office of deacon in 
the Congregational Church of Woodbury for the 
space of forty-three years, and died at the advanced 
age of eighty-three. He was a Christian of the old 
Puritan stamp, regular and strict in his observance 
of the Sabbath day, and spending much of his 
time in prayer and the perusal of the Scriptures. 



20 



MEMOIR OP 



His practice was to read his Bible through once a 
year, taking for his daily portion three chapters, 
and on Sabbath days five. He took a deep inter- 
est in his youthful grandson Everton ; and having 
been permitted, at a family meeting in Wood- 
bury, to hear him preach, expressed a lively satis- 
faction, that he had entered the ministry. His 
example seems to have left its impress on Mr. 
Judson's mind ; and it deserves to be mentioned, 
in connection with the high value which the latter 
ever attached to God's covenant with believing 
parents, that a constant expression of the aged 
deacon in his prayers was, " May we and our pos- 
terity be the blessed of the Lord forever." 

Asa Judson, the father of Everton, was a man 
of quick feeling, ardent in his friendships, and im- 
pulsive in his character. He had a jocose turn, 
and was very communicative. He was extremely 
fond of children, and always had a word ready for 
every boy or girl whom he met. He had no sar- 
casm. This trait, which was sometimes unpleas- 
antly conspicuous, the son inherited from his 
mother. In the family of Mr. Judson, religion was 
made a topic of familiar conversation, and both 
the parents took pains to instruct their children in 
its doctrines and duties. The Assembly's Cate- 
chism they taught as a matter of course. On Sab- 
bath afternoons, moreover, Mr. Judson was in the 
habit of gathering his children around him, and 
conversing with them respecting the sermons which 
they had heard. Both parents had the most un- 



EVERTON JUDSON. 21 

wavering faith in God's covenant with believers 
and their children. 

The mother, Mrs. Sarah Judson, is uniformly 
described as having been a woman of great worth, 
sterling integrity, and decision of character. One 
speaks of her as " a very substantial woman ;" 
another, as " a stable woman, firm as the hills ;" 
another still, as " a very judicious, consistent 
Christian." She was very frank and plain of 
speech. Mr. Judson always affirmed that it was 
from his mother that he inherited his plainness of 
speech. She was very decided in her way, which, 
in consequence of the clearness of her judgment, 
was generally right ; but, whatever were her decis- 
ions, she was not easily moved from them. She 
had no jocoseness, but, if she wished to say a se- 
vere thing, she knew how to make it felt. Her 
piety took its color from these natural traits of 
character. It was not of the sentimental or fitful 
kind, but steady and substantial. She was emi- 
nently a woman of faith and prayer. She died 
May 5, 1820, while the subject of this memoir was 
yet unconverted. In her death faith triumphed. 
She was composed and enjoyed the exercise of 
her reason to the last; conversing calmly with her 
friends, and all whom she saw, particularly with 
her children, whom she solemnly committed to the 
care of God. Many years afterwards, Mr. Judson 
inserted in the New York Evangelist an interest- 
ing article entitled "My Mother" which strikingly 
illustrates the deep impress that her example and 



22 MEMOIR OP 

instructions left upon his youthful mind. It is 
here given, with the omission of only some con- 
cluding sentences addressed to the young who 
might peruse it. 

" My mother has been for many years among 
the glorified in heaven. Her look, her manner, 
her tones of voice, are all embalmed in my mem- 
ory. The most distinct impression of these ever 
made, and the one which is still the most vivid in 
my eye, was implanted when I was quite a small 
boy. I cannot readily tell how old I was — perhaps 
six or seven. The circumstances are fresh in my 
recollection as if they had occurred yesterday. It 
was a cool evening in autumn — the fire burned 
very briskly on the old kitchen hearth. My mother 
sat in the corner of the fire-place at the right, and 
just upon her left hand I had seated myself upon 
the large stone hearth in front of the fire with my 
hammer, amusing myself in bending a piece of 
wire for carrying on my childish sports. I was 
exceedingly animated at my work. After watch- 
ing me for some time, she dropped her knitting in 
her lap, and, in a mellow subdued tone, such as 
mothers only can use, she said, c My son, I wish 
I could see you as much engaged in serving Jesus 
Christ as you are at your play.' She said not 
another word, but it went directly to my heart. I 
turned around, and slily wiped a tear from my eye, 
and resumed my task. My wicked heart had even 
then pride enough to prompt a wish to conceal my 
tears, yet the arrow remained in my bosom, and, 



EVERTON JUDSON. 23 

though many a long year passed away before I 
began in reality to serve Jesus Christ, the scene 
upon the kitchen hearth was never driven from my 
mind. In all the fo]]y of childhood, and wildness 
of youth, it returned at intervals to haunt my soul. 
It was just about one full year after my mother 
had gone home to glory, that I first gave myself 
to the hand of Jesus. O, I would have given all 
this world, had it been mine, could I at that mo- 
ment have taken the wings of a dove and flown 
away, where I could mingle, for an hour, with her 
happy spirit, that I might recall to her recollection 
the scene passed on the old kitchen hearth. I sel- 
dom think of her except in connection with that 
scene. The fixedness of her large blue eyes, her 
look, her mellow and subduing tones, her very ges- 
ture as she dropped her knitting upon her lap, are 
all present to my eye. It is no picture of the 
imagination. After the lapse of more than a 
quarter of a century, I love to drop a tear as I 
think of that hour." 

To those who knew Mr. Judson personally it is 
unnecessary to say that in him were blended the 
natural traits of character of both his parents, as 
they have been above described ; and that the 
whole of his public and private life exhibited the 
fruits of their early pious training. 

Mr. Judson was the eldest of six children, of 
whom the youngest alone, Mrs. Lorena Abbott, 
survives. 

In his youth he is described as having been 



24 MEMOIR OF 

prompt, decided, unyielding in his opinions, jocose, 
and sarcastic. His moral character and conduct 
were always unexceptionable. He was quick to 
learn, and rather fond of reading, though not re- 
markable in these respects. To the age of twenty- 
one, when he first became personally interested in 
religion, he labored on his father's farm, and few 
notices of this period remain. 

In the spring that followed the death of Mr. 
Judson's mother — the spring of 1821 — an exten- 
sive revival of religion took place in Woodbury. 
His attention was now aroused, and he commen- 
ced attending the evening meetings. He was not 
a man to do any thing which he undertook at 
halves. With his characteristic decision he went 
to all the meetings however remote from his fa- 
ther's residence. On one of these occasions he 
heard a sermon from the words, " How long halt 
ye between two opinions ? If the Lord be God, 
follow him : but if Baal, then follow him." The 
preacher exhorted his hearers to go home and 
write down, each one for himself, his decision for 
God or for Baal. To a man of his temperament 
this proposition could not but come with peculiar 
force. He determined to comply with the sugges- 
tion, and, upon going home, wrote down his deci- 
sion for the Lord. From that time his convictions 
of sin were deep, and he had no peace till he found 
it in believing. As soon as he had himself chosen 
Christ for his Master, he became very active in his 
labors to bring others to the knowledge of the same 



EVERTON JUDSON. 25 

Saviour. He frequently spoke in the religious 
meetings. There was at this time too much of 
that sharpness and asperity which also character- 
ized his early ministry, and some blamed him as 
being too forward. But what he said came from 
an earnest heart, and it never failed to produce an 
impression upon the hearers. 

Before his conversion Mr. Judson grieved for his 
mother's death, and felt that he could not be re- 
conciled to it. But after that event there was in 
this respect a marked change in his feelings. 
"Now," said he, "I can see the hand of God in 
her death." He doubtless felt that it had been 
made, under God, a means of bringing him to re- 
pentance. He connected himself with the Church 
in Woodbury in January 1822, along with thir- 
teen others. 

After his conversion he was very useful in form- 
ing the habits of the younger children of the fam- 
ily. In the temperance cause he was very decided 
and thorough-going. So early as 1821 y in the 
very dawn of the temperance reformation, and be- 
fore the formation of any temperance organization, 
he told his brothers that he should positively re- 
fuse to go into the field with them, if they carried 
to their work ardent spirits. This is the more no- 
ticeable because his father never came into the 
principles of total abstinence. 

In the winter of 1821—2, Mr. Judson, having 
then but recently made a profession of his faith in 
Christ, was employed to teach a school in Sher- 

a 



26 MEMOIR OF 

man, Ct. One who was a member of the school 
has furnished the following statement concerning 
him. 

"It was a large school, and many of the scholars 
were well advanced. I was not at that time a 
professor of religion, but his earnest, sincere efforts 
for the spiritual good of his pupils made a deep 
impression on my mind. In this respect he went 
farther than such labors had ever been carried be- 
fore. His religious feelings manifested themselves 
in his earnest, affectionate prayers for the conver- 
sion of his pupils. On Saturday afternoons, in 
connection with the Catechism, his exhortations 
were very solemn and earnest. On one occasion 
he requested all who felt an interest in the prayer 
which he was about to offer to kneel. But one 
pupil complied with the request, yet the impres- 
sion was deep. The language of his prayers was 
so peculiar, so earnest and importunate, that it 
was a common topic of conversation among the 
boys. These prayers were often accompanied with 
many tears.* 

"In teaching, he was careful to mix in with 
his instructions interesting anecdotes. Every les- 
son in geography he made interesting in this way. 
His instruction was of a high order, calculated to 
leave a stirring impression on the mind. He spent 
but one winter there. I have ever looked back to 
it as the most interesting winter of my life. He 

* Throughout the whole of his ministry, his prayers had a peculiarly 
fervid and impressive character. 



EVERTON JUDSON. 27 

differed from all my other teachers in the practical 
character of his instructions." 

Those who, many years afterwards, enjoyed the 
privilege of attending Mr. Judson's Bible Classes, 
will understand well what is meant by his " mix- 
ing in with his instructions interesting anecdotes." 
He had a rare faculty of bringing in illustrations 
in such a way as to make them exactly in point. 
In this respect the schoolmaster in Sherman was 
the same person as the pastor in Milan- 



CHAPTER IL 



HIS PREPARATION FOR THE MINISTRY, INCLUDING 
HIS COLLEGIATE AND THEOLOGICAL COURSE. 

Soon after his conversion, Mr. Judson turned 
his thoughts to the work of the ministry, and, with 
a view to this, he began, in the spring of 1822, to 
prepare for entering College. That his desire to 
obtain a liberal education had reference entirely to 
the work of preaching the gospel there can be no 
doubt. So his father and friends always under- 
stood it. Yet it is true that, during his college 
course, he expressed doubts whether he was called 
of God to this work. A friend, who knew him 
intimately at that time, says, that, during his senior 
year, he came very near deciding to be a physician. 
His argument was, that he should be " so dull as 
a preacher, and accomplish so little in the minis- 
try." Upon conversing with his father on the sub- 
ject, the old gentleman replied, " You know, Ever- 
ton, what sacrifices I have made in educating you 
for this very object. And now I feel that all I 
have done for you is lost." As his father said this 



EVERTON JUDSON. 29 

he wept. Everton was much moved, and told him 
that he would make the trial. 

His preparation for College was so hurried and 
imperfect that he lost much of the benefit of the 
college course. He commenced his studies, as al- 
ready remarked, in the spring of 1822, and in the 
fall of 1823 he entered the Sophomore class in 
Yale College, having occupied only a year and a 
half in the work of preparation. To go through 
all the preparatory studies, with those of the 
Freshman year, in this period of time, with accu- 
racy and thoroughness, was impossible. Several 
books of the classical course he omitted, and the 
rest he read superficially. By this hurried and in- 
adequate preparation he not only lost almost en- 
tirely the benefit of the classical course in College, 
but, as was quite natural, passed through the The- 
ological Seminary afterwards without gaining an 
accurate knowledge of the original languages of 
Scripture. Of this defective preparation for Col- 
lege, he ever spoke as a great calamity, and one 
which followed him during the whole of his min- 
isterial life ; and he was in the habit of warning 
young students against committing the like error. 

One who knew him intimately, studied with 
him in preparing for College, and was his room- 
mate throughout the three years of his college life, 
bears the following testimony on this point. " The 
truth is his college course was almost ruined by 
the deficiency of his preparation to enter College. 
We studied together one year, (he had been study- 
3* 



30 MEMOIR OF 

ing by himself a few months previously,) and then 
we entered the Sophomore class, not half fitted. 
I can say, without a metaphor, I have often looked 
back upon my college course, and regarded it as 
almost entirely lost by my miserable mistake of 
hurrying over my preparation so hastily ; and I am 
satisfied that if Mr. Judson had been more care- 
fully fitted to enter, especially in the languages, 
he would have ranked among the first of his class. 
I do not believe that in our class of one hundred, 
there were ten persons who equaled him, either in 
talents or application." 

One reason of his crowding his preparatory 
studies into so narrow a space, seems to have been 
his father's straitened circumstances. Several 
years before, in 1816, when his means were more 
at his command, he had offered to give Everton a 
liberal education, but the offer had been at that 
time declined. Now, when the son had changed 
his mind, the father's property was not in such a 
shape as to be easily made available for the pur- 
poses of an education. To his intimate friends 
his struggles with poverty during his college 
course were well known. 

In College, Mr. Judson ever maintained the 
character of a sincere and consistent Christian. 
u I remember him," says the same class-mate and 
room-mate whose words have been quoted above, 
u as an active, useful Christian, during a revival 
which occurred in College. Religion with him 
was not a periodical or spasmodic affection. He 



EVERTON JUDSON, 31 

always, I think, cultivated and maintained the 
spirit of prayer; and was always seeking to be 
useful. At one time we were both complaining 
of low spirits, and he quoted, 'taedet me vitae ' — 
J life wearies me ' — -and I said something in reply 
of 'a lodge in some vast wilderness.' He imme- 
diately added, ' Yes, it would do, if one had a hea- 
then to instruct, or some way of being useful.' 
I mention this incident, because it impressed me 
deeply with the spirit of the man ; for surely noth- 
ing was further from my thoughts, in that hour of 
despondency; than the idea of usefulness : and this 
spirit he manifested, I think, in a somewhat re- 
markable degree, throughout life." 

In steady, consistent piety, and desire for use- 
fulness, he was the same man in College as after- 
wards in the ministry. Those who knew him only 
in the latter capacity may naturally enough con- 
ceive of him as taking the same bold and open 
attitude, and exerting the same commanding in- 
fluence. If so, they will be very wide from the 
truth. In this respect, Mr. Judson on the Western 
Reserve was exceedingly unlike Mr. Judson in 
College. One who was associated with him af- 
terwards in the Theological Seminary, has well 
said, " You will inquire in vain of that period for 
the unfolding of his character. His college and 
seminary life was comparatively obscure. He 
shrank from any public exhibition of himself or 
his talents." He was to a most remarkable extent 
diffident and retiring. He never, on any occasion. 



32 



MEMOIR OF 



put himself forth prominently in his class ; never 
rose to address a religious meeting; never took 
part in the debates of any literary society ; never 
so much as declaimed in his turn before the Col- 
lege. The writer of this memoir well remembers 
his detailing to him one evening, as he sat with 
him in his parlor in Milan, the way which he took 
to escape this to him extremely unpleasant exhibi- 
tion of himself in public. His plan was that of 
engaging substitutes to fill his place, who, when 
their own turn came round, quietly appeared for 
themselves also the second time. This was un- 
doubtedly unwise as well as wrong. It is not 
mentioned here as a thing to be approved, but 
simply as a historic fact illustrative of his diffi- 
dence. 

If any are surprised at these statements, let 
them remember that, if Mr. Judson was a very 
energetic and decided man, he was also a very 
sensitive man ; and a man, too, whose ideal of a 
public performance was very high, while he was 
conscious of his inability to come up to it in exe- 
cution. This is equivalent to saying that he was 
a very diffident man ; for great sensitiveness and a 
high standard of excellence, with the conscious in- 
ability of reaching it, and, as a natural conse- 
quence, the apprehension of exposing one's self, 
by a failure, to disparaging remarks, are the ele- 
ments which go to make up diffidence. It should 
be considered, too, that in College, with a misera- 
ble preparation, as we have seen, he was daily 



EVERTON JUDSON. 33 

brought into contact with those who had enjoyed 
much higher advantages of training than his own, 
and were consequently able to appear, to much 
better advantage. This, though in reality a high 
privilege, unfortunately exerted upon his spirits a 
depressing influence, and kept him back from all 
public performances. His subsequent mastery of 
this diffidence is nothing very unusual or surpri- 
sing. It often happens to men of great energy and 
force of character, that when, under the impulse of 
some strong moral feeling, they once break through 
their native bashfulness, they are able to fill the 
most public stations without embarrassment. Nay 
more, the very determination to overcome their 
feelings of diffidence seems to impart to them a 
peculiar warmth and impetuosity of spirit. 

What has been said of his collegiate life holds 
good of the two years which, after his graduation, 
he spent in the Theological School of Yale Col- 
lege. " If I remember aright," says the same as- 
sociate in the Theological Seminary, " he seldom 
or ever read a dissertation before the theological 
class. He w T as accustomed to borrow the profes- 
sors' lectures, and take the heads after reading, 
and sometimes make copious extracts, and even 
copy whole lectures, for his own use in his study, 
but he made no show of his labor. He was a dili- 
gent, regular student, retiring in his manners, seek- 
ing obscurity ; or rather remaining in that obscur- 
ity which his natural diffidence had thrown over 
him." 



34 MEMOIR OF 

But neither in the College nor the Seminary 
was Mr. Judson's life devoid of religious activity. 
His earnest, ardent spirit, could not rest without 
some field of usefulness. Such a field he sought 
and found, humble but blessed, and removed from 
the notice of his fellow students. With one of his 
class-mates, the Rev. E. Barber, he engaged in the 
work of giving instruction in the Sabbath school 
of colored children belonging to the Rev. Mr. Joce- 
lyn's congregation. This was in his junior year. In 
this school he continued during the whole time of 
his residence in New Haven. It was also his custom 
to go out with the same companion among the 
neighborhoods of colored families in and around 
New Haven. From a pocket Bible, which he al- 
ways carried, he read to them, prayed with them, 
and, whenever a proper opportunity presented it- 
self, urged the parents to send their children to the 
Sabbath school. " I remember one Sabbath after- 
noon," says one, u he invited me to go with him 
to visit some colored families down in the New 
Township, as it was called, and as we passed from 
house to house for religious conversation, I well 
remember they greeted him kindly, as one with 
whom they were well acquainted, and he seemed 
also well acquainted with their spiritual condition. 
I am not aware that he ever sought the society of 
the wealthy, the refined, or the fashionable, during 
his residence in New Haven, but, by his unobtru- 
sive course of useful labor, he had the esteem and 
the confidence of some of the best citizens." 



EVERTON JUDSON. 35 

In his senior year he taught an evening school 
of colored children, under the room then occupied 
by the Brothers' Society. This he was at some 
pains to keep private, probably from the appre- 
hension of molestation from such of his fellow stu- 
dents as had no sympathy with his efforts. For 
this work he received a compensation. 

Upon entering the Theological School imme- 
diately after his graduation, he attended, in addi- 
tion to his other labors for the colored people, a 
Thursday evening meeting of the nature of a Bible 
class, composed mostly of young colored women 
at service in families. There were generally 
twenty or thirty present. The order of exercises 
was singing, prayer, and the exposition of a pas- 
sage of Scripture in that style of familiar illustra- 
tion in which he always excelled. This exercise 
he continued during the two years of his connec- 
tion with the Seminary. 

All the above labors for the spiritual good of the 
colored people were under the direction of Mr. 
Jocelyn, the pastor of the colored congregation. 
In this respect he was always punctilious ; and 
did not hesitate to express his decided disapproba- 
tion of the course pursued by some theological 
students, who allowed themselves in the habit of 
making appointments within the fields of stated 
pastors, without seeking their advice and direc- 
tion. 

He was also, when a theological student, in the 
habit of going out on Sabbath evenings into the 



36 MEMOIR OP 

neighborhoods and villages around New Haven, 
to hold religious meetings, generally in company 
with some layman of standing in the city. The 
time was occupied with singing, prayer, and ex- 
hortation. He spoke to great acceptance, always 
taking care (as he did ever afterwards) to make 
himself understood by the people present. There 
was hardly a week, from the commencement of 
his junior year, in which he was not engaged in 
active efforts for the spiritual good of others, more 
especially of the colored people. All these labors 
were conducted in a still and noiseless way. To 
the author, though his class-mate and a member 
of the church, they were utterly unknown, as he 
presumes they were to all the rest of his fellow 
students except a select few. 

His motive, in these labors among the more ob- 
scure part of the community, was doubtless the 
simple desire of doing good. At the same time 
he probably hoped to overcome in this way that 
diffidence which had so far kept him back before 
his fellow students, and thus to qualify himself for 
more extended usefulness. He had a strong de- 
sire to do good, but was doubtful whether he 
should succeed — an apprehension which he not 
unfrequently expressed — and he preferred to make 
trial of his powers in this humble way. " The 
first time," says the friend last quoted, " that I 
heard him address an audience was at a Sabbath 
evening meeting in Derby. Though I do not re- 
member the order of his remarks, yet I shall al- 



EVERTON JUDSON. 37 

ways remember the theme, and the interest with 
which I heard him. He exhibited God in the 
character of a Father. He drew especially the 
parental character of his moral government. He 
spoke with much feeling himself, and, if I may 
judge from my own interest at the time, he inter- 
ested those who heard him. It was with him a 
favorite theme, and I was interested not only with 
the theme and the manner, but it may be more 
with witnessing so unexpected and happy an ex- 
hibition of his talent for popular address. From 
that time I never feared for his success as a pub- 
lic speaker." 



CHAPTER III. 



HIS LICENSURE AND SABBATH SCHOOL AGENCY. 

At the close of his second year in the Seminary, 
Mr. Judson, with others of his class, was licensed 
to preach the gospel. Finding it necessary to en- 
gage in some employment which should furnish 
him the funds of which he stood in need, he pro- 
posed to Mr. Eldad Barber, his class-mate in both 
the College and the Seminary, and who was un- 
der the like necessity with himself, that they 
should undertake a Sabbath School Agency for 
the West. At this time there was in the Seminary, 
as well as generally among the patrons and friends 
of Home Missions and Sabbath Schools, an in- 
creased interest for the West, and missionaries for 
both these departments of benevolence were in de- 
mand. A Committee of the American Home 
Missionary Society, of whom the then Corres- 
ponding Secretary, Rev. Absalom Peters, was one, 
had recently visited the Seminary to present the 
claims of Home Missions. It was about this pe- 
riod also that the movement commenced, which 



EVERTON JUDSON. 39 

resulted in the establishment of Illinois College. 
In this general sympathy for the West Mr, Judson 
shared largely. But, instead of immediately en- 
tering upon the work of Home Missions — a work 
in which we shall hereafter see him embarked — 
he preferred first to undertake a Sabbath School 
Agency. The warm interest which he had always 
manifested in Sabbath Schools was one motive 
that determined him in this direction. He was 
also, as we shall presently see, anxious to begin 
with some field of labor less embarrassing to him 
than the pastoral charge, which should, at the 
same time, furnish an opportunity of exploring the 
West as a prospective field of missionary labor. 

In accordance with Mr. Judson's suggestion to 
Mr. Barber, the two friends offered their services 
to the American Sunday School Union, which 
were accepted. 

In a letter to his father, written from New Ha- 
ven and announcing this appointment to a Sab- 
bath School Agency, he says, " There is a great 
and desolate field at the West, where multitudes 
are perishing through lack of a ministration of the 
gospel. This agency will afford me good oppor- 
tunity to survey the ground and see where is the 
best field for usefulness. My prevailing opinion 
at present is that, by the permission of a kind 
Providence, I shall ultimately plant my feet be- 
yond the Mississippi river, and, most probably, in 
the State of Missouri. You will say to me, ' You 
will be exposing yourself to innumerable trials and 



40 MEMOIR OF 

privations.' Probably I shall, but still I do not 
allow them to occupy my mind. Matth. vi. 34,* 
furnishes me with all I wish for on this subject, 
especially when taken in connection with Matth. 
xxviii. 20,f and 2 Cor. xii. 9.$ My greatest, and I 
can almost say, my only trial on this subject is 
that I must leave four members of our family pro- 
fessedly destitute of any saving faith in Jesus 
Christ. This grieves me to the heart. I say it 
most sincerely, it is my greatest grief. Not that I 
can save them by remaining with them. Perhaps, 
my bad example gone from their sight, they will 
be more likely to repent. But still the thought of 
parting for eternity — it is too painful — I will not 
dwell upon it." 

In the beginning of October Mr. Judson and 
Mr. Barber repaired to Philadelphia to receive 
their commission, outfit, and instructions. They 
spent a week in Philadelphia, during which time 
Mr. Judson visited a number of public institutions, 
and was an attentive observer, entering in his 
journal his remarks on what he saw and heard. 
Under date of Thursday, Oct. 8th, occurs the fol- 
lowing : " The Committee met this afternoon, and 
decided on sending us to Nashville, Tennessee." 
Had this decision been carried out, it might have 

* Take therefore no thought for the morrow : for the morrow shall 
take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the 
evil thereof. 

i Lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world. 

X My grace is sufficient for thee : for my strength is made perfect in 
weakness. 



EVERTON JUDSON. 41 

materially altered the history of both these breth- 
ren. But the next day he mentions a different ar- 
rangement ; — " On account of intelligence that the 
Ohio river is so low as not to be navigable, our 
destination was to-day changed from Tennessee 
to the Southern part of Ohio. Determined to com- 
mence our journey tomorrow." Accordingly the 
next day they set out for Wheeling, Va., and from 
that point entered their field Saturday, Oct. 18, 
1828. 

Their first plan was to labor separately. Mr. 
Judson went down the Ohio river, and Mr. Barber 
north. In a letter to Mr. Barber he describes, with 
some humor, his first entrance upon his field, and 
the fruitless attempts which he made to find an 
.opportunity of presenting his subject. To him, as 
has been the case with many others, it happened 
that the chief difficulty was to obtain the first 
hearing. After riding all day on Saturday, he 
called on the man to whom he had been directed, 
and told him his business. " He very drily re- 
marked that I might call on Mr. A., (who was, by 
the way, near half a mile from the main road,) 
and if he thought I had better stay with them over 
the Sabbath, I might come back to stay at his 
house." Mr. A. received him with a good degree 
of cordiality, but informed him that an Agent had 
been there, and had done all that could be done 
on the subject of Sabbath Schools. Accordingly 

he mounted his horse and rode on to M , 

where he arrived about an hour after dark, calling 
4* 



42 MEMOIR OF 

there by the advice of Mr. A on Dr. G , 

who sent him to the tavern for a lodging. But 
here he could obtain no promise of an audience, 
or help in collecting one. " I requested," he says, 
"of the landlord permission to preach, and that 
notice should be forwarded through the village. 
To this he would not consent, claiming that it 
would be impossible to give notice." So the next 

morning, he started for the Rev. Mr. C 's 

parish about ten miles distant, but learned on the 
way that his Church was shut in consequence of 
his being absent at Synod on the Sabbath. He 
next turned off into a corner of the parish where 

he learned that a Mr. W was to preach, and 

arrived just as the meeting was about commencing. 
Mr. W., on reading his commission, and hearing 
his business, consented to give him his place ; but 
one of the audience rose and stated that he had 

come ten or fifteen miles to hear Mr. W 

preach ; that they had all assembled for the pur- 
pose of hearing him, and that the disappointment 
would be too great. " Again," says Mr. Judson, 
" my hopes were dashed : I bit my lips and re- 
mained silent." "But, after sermon," he says, " I 
requested the people to have a few minutes inter- 
mission and hear me preach. They all staid. The 
house was crowded. I preached from Prov. xxii. 6, 
" Train up a child in the way he should go," etc. 

The best part of Mr. C 's Church were present, 

on account of there being no meeting in their own 
house. The scale was now turned: I received 



EVERTON JUDSON. 43 

many warm invitations for the night. They had 
not attempted a Sabbath School here. I remained 
two days, visited nearly all the families, collected 
a Sabbath School of about fifty, and near $20 for 
a library." 

After this Mr. Judson had no further difficulty. 
The ice was effectually broken. The people had 
found out that he was a preacher to some purpose, 
and he found openings enough in every direction. 

In January 1829 Mr. Judson and Mr. Barber 
met in Zanesville. Being now fully convinced 
that they could operate together with more effi- 
ciency, they adopted, after mature deliberation, 
the following plan. As they were about closing 
up their labors in a county, one of them went 
forward as a pioneer to the principal seat of reli- 
gious influence in the adjoining county, and made 
arrangements thera, in connection with the minis- 
ters and churches, for the public presentation of 
the subject at designated times in all those places 
where it was believed that a Sabbath School So- 
ciety could be organized and sustained. Notices 
of these appointments were duly forwarded to the 
several places. The Agent now returned, and 
communicated to his colleague the arrangement; 
after which they divided the county between 
themselves, taking different routes, and fulfilling 
the designated appointments. In going through a 
county their general plan was to present the cause 
publicly at a given place in the evening, and cir- 
culate a constitution previously prepared, with a 



44 MEMOIR OF 

subscription list attached to it. This they did for 
the double purpose of obtaining signatures to the 
constitution and subscriptions for a Sabbath School 
library. They also generally recommended that 
delegates should be appointed to attend a general 
central meeting to be held at the close of the ef- 
fort in the county. They spent as much of the 
next day in visiting the families of the vicinity as 
was consistent with the fulfilment of the next 
evening's appointment; for they generally had an 
appointment for every evening. " We labored 
hard," says Mr. Barber, "beyond our strength, as 
we were afterwards fully convinced, feeling that 
every day was precious." 

When the way had been thus prepared, the 
general central meeting was held. This was by 
day-light and in a church. Both attended, and 
endeavored to make the most of the occasion. 
A county Sunday School Union was formed, to 
which the separate Sunday School organizations 
had been, by way of anticipation, made auxilia- 
ries. This was a well digested plan, and under it 
they found themselves able to accomplish four or 
five times as much in a given period as before, 
when they operated separately. 

The fact has already been noticed that it enter- 
ed into the plan of their neighborhood evening 
meetings to take up subscriptions for Sunday 
School libraries. In this way a large number of 
libraries was established. Mr. Judson's journal 
abounds in such notices as the following : — 



EVERTON JUDSON. 45 

" Preached in the evening, organized a S. S., raised 
$25 for a library, with a prospect of some in- 
crease " — " preached and organized a S. S. Socie- 
ty, with $23 subscribed for a library " — " a sub- 
scription was commenced with a prospect of ob- 
taining $75 for a library." This latter subscrip- 
tion, which was at Lancaster, far exceeds the usual 
average ; which, for forty-five societie's, is about 
$17. At the County meeting for Muskingum, 
held in Putnam, he states that " Reports were made 
from all the Societies formed, and $220 paid over 
to the County Treasurer, to be forwarded to Phila- 
delphia for a library." At a similar meeting for 
Licking, held in Granville, " delegates were pre- 
sent from twelve of the fourteen places visited in 
the county, and $215 were reported for libraries. 
Granville, having been visited yesterday, had not 
yet made up its collection, and several of the 
places visited last intend to add to the amount re- 
ported. The whole amount for the County will 
probably be not far from $250." At Mansfield, 
upon the organization of the County Union, 
" more than $100 were reported from the Schools 
formed, although several of the Schools did not 
report." 

It was their aim to make the Schools which 
they organized auxiliary to the American Sunday 
School Union ; but, in this respect, they pursued 
a liberal and catholic policy. This policy Mr. 
Judson thus indicates in the letter to Mr. Barber 
from which some extracts have already been made : 



46 MEMOIR OF 

" Where there are Methodists, I advise them to 
belong to the Methodist Union. Where Metho- 
dists and Presbyterians are mixed in a school they 
are divided on the question [of becoming auxi- 
liary,] and here I advise them to become auxiliary 
to no Union." This relates to the time of the 
separate operation of the two brethren. 

It appears from Mr. Judson's letters and journal 
that he also distributed Tracts and Magazines to 
some extent. On one page of his journal occurs 
the following anecdote. "While passing along 
the road, saw two small boys drawing home corn 
on a chair leaned back. They lived in a cabin 
near by. Asked the eldest (eight or ten years of 
age) if he could read. 

L No Sir, I am not old enough to learn to read.' 

* Can your mother read ?' 

< Yes.' 

1 Will you give her this tract V 
4 Yes Sir, but may I not have it to learn to read 
in?' 

c Yes, and I will give one to your brother.' 
< 1 think you must be a religious man, Sir.' 

< Why ? ' 

* Because you are so clever as to give us books. 
Thank you, Sir, for the books.' 

I rode on much delighted with the simplicity 
and the gratitude of the boy." 

In this agency they continued together until 
March, five months. But Mr. Judson's health 
sunk under the labor and exposure of the service. 



EVERTON JUDSON. 47 

Traveling, and the irregularity of diet connected 
with it, always disagreed with him. That he 
might enjoy good health he needed a settled and 
regular mode of life. He retired from his Agency 
to Marietta, where he was confined by sickness 
some six or eight weeks. His last entry in his 
journal is the following : 

" Aggregate [of travel] 2,070 miles ; add 120 
miles on the Ohio river in steamboat — total 2,190. 
Aggregate of sermons preached 127." 

This was a hard winter's work ; but one which 
resulted in the establishment of many Sunday 
Schools, the resuscitation of some which were 
languishing, and the introduction of a large num- 
ber of valuable libraries. In the judgment with 
which it was planned, and the energy and success 
with which it was executed the discerning eye 
eould discover the blossoms of that abundant har- 
vest of usefulness which followed. 

Mr. Barber, having completed a longer term of 
service, met Mr. Judson at Marietta, and, as soon 
as the state of his health would permit, set out 
with him for home. On this journey he suffered 
greatly from ill health and depression of spirits. 

The summer of 1829 he spent in Connecticut, 
preaching in various places. He had not yet re- 
covered from the shock which his constitution had 
received in Ohio, but continued feeble and sub- 
ject to extreme depression of spirits. It was upon 
one of these occasions that he wrote the sermon 
so often referred to afterwards by himself as emi- 



48 MEMOIR OF 

nently blessed by God, from the text, " I shall be 
satisfied, when I awake, with thy likeness." Re- 
specting this sermon he repeatedly averred that he 
had the impression while preparing it that he 
should die in preaching it ; and that he selected 
that theme because he thought that it would be a 
pleasant one to die upon. This impression fol- 
lowed him on Saturday as he left his home in 
"Woodbury, so much so that he regretted not hav- 
ing left with his friends a notice of his expected 
decease. It continued through all the services 
until he had become warm in preaching, when it 
was forgotten. This extraordinary incident may 
serve to shed light on some passages in his history 
afterwards, when, under the influence of gloomy 
impressions, he took false views of things, and did 
not act in accordance with his usual sound judg- 
ment ; as, for example, when, more than once, he 
handed in to the deacons of the Church in Milan 
his resignation on the ground that his usefulness 
in the congregation was at an end. 



CHAPTER IV. 



HIS LOCATION IN MILAN, WITH AN ACCOUNT OF 
HIS LABORS IN BERLIN. 

" A man's heart deviseth his way : but the Lord 
directeth his steps," — is a maxim of Holy Writ 
which was strikingly illustrated in Mr. Judson's 
case. In the summer of 1829 he offered himself 
as a missionary to the American Home Mission- 
ary Society, and was ordained in Woodbury by 
the Litchfield South Association, in company with 
seven other young men, of whom Mr. Eldad Bar- 
ber was one. Immediately after the Commence- 
ment in Yale College, he and Mr. Barber set out 
together for Ohio, with a commission for Marion 
county, but a chain of circumstances ordered in 
God's providence led Mr. Judson to Milan, and 
eventually brought his associate to the same place. 
On the steamboat at New York, the two compan- 
ions met the Rev. Xenophon Betts, who was on 
his return, with his wife, to Wakeman in Huron 
county, where he had been installed as pastor the 
previous spring. In company with Mr. and Mrs. 
5 



50 MEMOIR OF 

Betts was also Mrs. Lockwood, a lady of Milan, 
since deceased ; and, as they took the slow method 
of the line-boat through the Canal, a good oppor- 
tunity was afforded of mutual intercourse, which 
was afterwards affectionately remembered by all 
the members of the circle. Thus they traveled to- 
gether till they reached Cleveland. Here Mr. Bar- 
ber parted from them and went South to attend 
the sessions of the Synod of Ohio at Lancaster ; 
but Mr. Judson, having some relatives and other 
friends in Mr. Betts' parish, concluded to accom- 
pany him to Wakeman. To accomplish this they 
proceeded up the lake to Portland [now Sandusky 
City]. The remaining circumstances of this his 
first visit to Milan, fraught with such important 
interests to him and to that people, as well as to 
the whole adjoining region, shall be given in his 
own words contained in a letter from Milan to Mr. 
Barber under the date of Oct. 6, 1829. " We 
reached Portland about three o'clock in the morn- 
ing after you left us. I reached this place about 
noon the same day, and found, to my no small re- 
gret, that Mr. Peters had preached here the eve- 
ning previous, and had left for Columbus only two 
or three hours before I arrived* I spent the next 
Sabbath in Wakeman, and preached for brother 
Betts while he went to Clarksfield. Last Sabbath 
I preached in this place. It is a pleasant village, 
and one of considerable importance. There is a 
small church, but it is at present paralyzed by di- 
visions and coldness. It is a post that ought by 



EVERTON JUDSON. 51 

all means to be occupied. They have expressed a 
high degree of satisfaction with my performance 
last Sabbath, and are urging me on all hands to 
stay and preach for them. But you know I am 
not at liberty to give them any encouragement. 
I have become acquainted with several of the cler- 
gymen here, and find them, as far as I can judge, 
to be men of the right stamp." 

While these influences were operating to detain 
Mr. Judson on the Western Reserve, others not 
less strong were repelling him from the place of 
his original destination. The controversy on the 
subject of New Haven Theology was then in pro- 
gress, and, as a natural result, suspicions and 
jealousies were afloat in the community in refe- 
rence to the students who came out from that 
Seminary. Before the two friends left New Ha- 
ven a letter had been received, addressed to them 
by a member of the Presbytery of Columbus, 
which gave them to understand that their orthodoxy 
was a matter of doubt in that region. " Your sys- 
tem of theology," says the letter, " may not be the 
same as ours ; and, possibly, when we come to 
understand what it is, we may not approve of it ; 
particularly should you embrace Dr. T.'s views of 
original sin. But, if that should be your system, 
we would not think it our duty to shut you out of 
our limits, but require that you should not teach 
it ; and endeavor, as brethren, having the same 
God and engaged in the same cause, to have you 
adopt a better system." It is not the author's in- 



52 MEMOIR OF 

tention to impute any blame to the writer of this 
letter, who undoubtedly acted from a sense of duty 
and in the spirit of christian frankness. But it 
could not operate otherwise upon Mr. Judson's 
mind than as a dissuasive to his going within the 
bounds of that Presbytery : for he was not the 
man to preach any where upon sufferance, within 
prescribed limits of doctrine. What he believed 
to be the truth he held openly, and felt himself 
under obligation to God to preach as openly. 
Neither was he the man to seek a battle-ground 
on disputed points of theology. However man- 
fully he may have afterwards withstood the inroads 
of error upon the field in which God's providence 
had located him, he never manifested a disposition 
to thrust himself forward as an ecclesiastical com- 
batant. It is certain from his correspondence with 
Mr. Barber that, ever after the receipt of this letter, 
his mind had been averse to the idea of entering 
upon a field of labor where he could not expect 
the full confidence of his brethren as a man sound 
in the faith. And when a good opening presented 
itself to him in a region where, although the minis- 
ters did not all agree with the New Haven divines, 
they were yet ready to welcome him with open 
arms as a faithful minister of Christ, he was 
strongly set upon occupying it. In the same letter 
to Mr. Barber, from which an extract has already 
been given, he says, " I shall plead hard for a loca- 
tion in this county. I have seen no county in 
Ohio, except Delaware and Marion, which pre- 



EVERTON JUDSON. 53 

sents so urgent a call for tiuo additional ministers 
in the same county as does this. So confident am 
I that I shall remain here that I shall attend the 
Synod of the Western Reserve instead of that of 
Ohio. The county is new and promising, and has 
quite as much missionary ground as any south 
of it." 

In accordance with the above intimation he at- 
tended the Synod of the Western Reserve, and, 
upon his return to Milan, wrote again to Mr. Bar- 
ber under date of Oct. 28, 18*29. In this letter he 
censures Mr. Barber for writing under the influ- 
ence of " a military spirit," because the latter had 
advised that they should disregard these suspi- 
cions about orthodoxy, and go straight forward 
in their work. " For my part," he says, " I am 
willing to be called a coward. I had rather run 
than fight. If the Assembly's Board want Marion 
County, let them have it. I have confidence in 
Princeton men, and do not fear for the cause of 
Christ in their hands." He then dwells largely 
upon the feeble state of his health. " I have," he 
says, " much reason to tremble for my health, go 
where I will. But my labors in Marion county 
would be twice as great as here. At no time 
since I arrived here has my health been sufficient 
to go through with an extempore sermon an hour 
long without fainting. In addition, if I go there I 
shall have no roads, few of the comforts which my 
feeble health requires, and be obliged to ride from 
place to place, and encounter storms which will 
5* 



54 



MEMOIR OF 



soon wear out my feeble frame." At the close of 
the letter he says, " I should be glad to write more, 
but am so fatigued I must lie down. I am at 
present under the doctor's care." 

November 19, he wrote again as follows : " After 
I sealed the letter which I wrote to you three 
weeks ago, I went to bed, as I said I should, but 
did not rise again, except to have my bed made, 
for about two weeks. I have had something of a 
run of fever, in addition to my old complaints. 
Day before yesterday, three weeks from the time I 
was taken, I rode out for the first time. How 
soon I shall be able to preach is known only to 
him who knows the end from the beginning. I 
suppose my illness was brought on by the fatigue 
and exposure of going to the Synod. I was taken 
before I reached Milan on my return." In the 
same letter he repeats his arguments against going 
to Marion county. 

Mr. Judson's disorder was an attack of ague and 
fever, which, in its final issue, seems to have pro- 
duced a favorable change in his system, and to 
have operated as a kind of physical regeneration. 
Before this attack he was thin and gaunt. It was 
after he had fully recovered from it that a tendency 
to corpulency first began to manifest itself. His 
physician was the late Dr. A. B. Harris, at whose 
house he was sick. The kind attentions of Dr. 
Harris and his family made a deep impression on 
his mind. In one of his letters he says, " Re- 
specting my sickness I have to remark that my 



EVERTON JUDSON. 55 

obligations to God are infinite. The first house 
which I entered in the place was that of Dr. Har- 
ris.* In him and his wife I have found a brother 
and a sister indeed. Their house is my home. I 
could not wish for a better. In his family I was 
sick, and every attention of every kind which I 
could reasonably ask for was received, and every 
thing gratuitous." Between Dr. Harris and Mr. 
Judson an endeared intimacy existed till the death 
of the former in the year 1844. 

These particulars of the change of Mr. Judson's 
plan in respect to his field of labor have been given 
somewhat in detail, because upon this change 
hinged the whole of his future life. The invita- 
tion of the Church in Milan he felt it his duty to 
accept, and from that time to the day of his death 
his history is identified with theirs. Virtually, his 
pastoral relation to them commenced at this point, 
though he was not formally installed over them 
until several years afterwards. 

Mr. Judson did not, at the first, give his Sab- 
bath days exclusively to Milan. One third of the 
time he preached in Berlin, the township directly 
east of Milan, which was then called " Eldridge." 
This arrangement must have been made about the 
close of the year 1829, for in a letter to Mr. Barber 
dated Jan. 30, 1830, he says : " I preach two Sab- 
baths in Milan and one in Eldridge. As I have 
been at Eldridge but twice, I must defer my ac- 

* He had, however, on his way to the village of Milan, stopped at 
the house of Deacon Philo Adams, where he took his first meal. 



56 MEMOIR OF 

count of that place." The present seems to be a 
suitable place for inserting a summary of his la- 
bors in Berlin. 

When he commenced preaching there the Pres- 
byterian Church had only fifteen members, and 
was in a very depressed condition, other denomi- 
nations having had the ascendency in the town. 
His policy was to go forward in a quiet way, and 
avoid all controversy with men of other sects. 
On this point he expresses himself very decidedly. 
" I feel," he writes to his friend, " that God has in 
great mercy kept us from excitement;" and he 
strongly counsels him, if surrounded by men of a 
sectarian spirit, to "discountenance every thing 
like noise or excitement," and thus give them 
" nothing to feed on." To his intimate friends it 
is well known that, at a later period, when he was 
absorbed in the work of conducting protracted 
meetings, he strongly condemned the above senti- 
ments in regard to excitement, declaring his belief 
that, through fear of excitement, he had stood in 
the way of a powerful revival in Berlin. But, 
many years before his death, he returned again, as 
we shall see, to his first opinion. 

Besides his regular services in Berlin on the 
Sabbath, he visited the place once, and sometimes 
twice a week, to preach an extempore lecture. 
His labors were owned by the great Head of the 
Church in the quickening of believers, and the 
conversion of unbelievers. To his friend he writes, 
March 16, 1830 : " The little church in Eldridge is 



EVERTON JUDSON. 57 

very much awake, and there have been of late 
several hopeful conversions. A number of others 
are serious. We do not call it a revival yet. We 
are not, however, without strong hopes.'' And on 
the 21st of the month following : " There have 
been eight or ten hopeful conversions at Eldridge : 
meetings are still crowded : several are still se- 
rious, and we hope it w T ill continue. I frequently 
need help there. I preach there every week, and 
sometimes twice in the week." May 19th, he 
writes : " The seriousness continues at Eldridge : 
we have no powerful revival there, but a silent 
dropping from above." The year following, he 
notices indications of another revival. " In El- 
dridge there is again considerable seriousness, and 
four or five hopeful conversions. We are encour- 
aged to hope that we shall again witness a revival 
there." 

Meanwhile he was not forgetful of that cause 
for which he had labored so efficiently in the cen- 
tral and southern parts of the state. In the spring 
after he came to Berlin he organized a Sabbath 
School which met under the shade of the trees. 
This school was, for the place, very large and 
flourishing. In one of his letters he thus notices 
it : " Our Sunday Schools [at Milan and Eldridge] 
keep up a considerable interest. The one in El- 
dridge numbers nearly ninety scholars. That in 
Milan has, perhaps, nearly as many, but they are 
not near as regular in their attendance." 

The only place of worship which Mr. Judson 



58 MEMOIR OF 

could find in Berlin upon his entrance was a log 
school-house near the centre of the town, in which 
all denominations claimed an equal right. In his 
report to the Home Missionary Society, inserted 
in the Home Missionary for December 1830, and 
written the previous autumn, he thus describes 
the inconveniences to which his congregation was 
subjected. " Our Sabbath School in Eldridge is 
still interesting, though much of its interest must 
soon be destroyed, if, indeed, the school be not 
entirely suspended, by the approach of cold 
weather. We have no house of sufficient dimen- 
sions to accommodate the scholars. During the 
summer we have assembled the school in the log 
house which we use as a place of public worship. 
Every part of the house is so entirely filled with 
the members of the Sabbath School as would 
render the scene one of utter confusion, should we 
attempt to hear recitations. Our usual course has 
been, after the school is opened by prayer, for the 
teachers to take the scholars, and march them out 
by classes, and lodge them under the trees and 
fences in the neighborhood of the house, and, 
after recitation, march them back to receive their 
books from the library. There are usually con- 
siderable numbers who cannot get within the 
walls of the house during the public worship. 
You will see by this that we greatly need a house 
for the worship of God. The people are now 
making efforts to build a house thirty by forty 
next spring. It is doubtful whether they will sue- 



EVERTON JUDSON. 59 

ceed. Most of them have no dwellings except log 
cabins, and many of them struggle with poverty. 
Were the calls upon the benevolent in your city 
not so frequent, I would ask you to present our 
case to some who feel for the wants of " the west," 
with the hope of aid. With $100 from abroad, 
I would pledge myself that a plain, neat house, 
thirty by forty, should be erected and finished in 
one year from this date." 

The $100 from abroad Mr. Judson did not ob- 
tain. He raised it, as we shall presently see, or, 
at least, supplied its place, by his own self-denying 
liberality. Soon after the commencement of his 
labors in Berlin he had begun to talk to the people 
on the necessity of a house of worship ; and the 
importance of this he pressed not only upon the 
members of the church, but also upon the wealthier 
men in the place out of the church, wherever he 
had reason to believe that they would be disposed 
to do any thing. A subscription paper was put in 
circulation, and about §350 were subscribed, the 
privilege being granted to the town of occupying 
the house for business purposes. It was now that 
Mr. Judson performed one of those acts of noble 
liberality which were so characteristic of him. 
He offered to give for the building of the house all 
that they should raise that year for his salary, and 
said, moreover, that if the subscription for this lat- 
ter object should not amount to §100, he would 
make up the deficiency. It actually fell short 
some five or ten dollars, which he paid out of his 



60 MEMOIR OF 

own pocket. Thus he bore more than one fifth 
of the whole expense. And, when the house was 
completed, in 1831, to furnish the pulpit he gave 
a Bible and Hymn Book, with this charge : — 
" I give you these, and, when you get able, you 
must, in like manner, furnish some needy church." 
As to the extent of his pecuniary resources when 
he performed this act of liberality he shall tell his 
own story. In a letter to Mr. Barber, written this 
very year, he says : " Some of us [in the Presby- 
tery of Huron] have nominally $400. I believe 
I realize more than any other man in the Presby- 
tery, and I had rather have $350 cash in regular 
payments than all I now get." But Mr. Judson 
was generous even to a fault, and, when his 
heart was set on the accomplishment of an ob- 
ject, he spared not his own purse, though but 
slenderly replenished. 

In his congregation in Berlin he manifested a 
deep interest, and, feeling that he could not oc- 
cupy both places, he frequently expressed his wil- 
lingness to take either Berlin or Milan as his 
permanent field of labor. " It is my wish," he 
writes in April 1830, " another year, should Provi- 
dence favor it, to give up either Milan or El- 
dridge, I do not care which ;" and the same re- 
mark he frequently repeated. After he left Berlin 
in 1832, he always took a deep interest in the 
spiritual welfare of the church to which he had 
ministered. On one occasion he said to Deacon 
Fuller : " I am raising up a minister for you : 



EVERTON JUDSON, 61 

you must hold on, and struggle along as well 
as you can ;" alluding to Mr. J. C. Sherwin, then 
a student of theology in Western Reserve Col- 
lege, who afterwards so long and so successfully 
occupied the post of pastor in the Congregational 
Church in Berlin. 



6 



CHAPTER V, 



HIS LABORS IN MILAN TILL THE FALL OF 1831 ] 
WITH A NOTICE OF THE PART HE BORE IN PRO- 
TRACTED MEETINGS. 



The history of Mr. Judson's labors in Milan 
will now be commenced. 

The Congregational Church in Milan was origi- 
nally organized April 25, 1818, in the house of 
Mr. Spears at " Spears' Corners," two miles north- 
west from the center of Milan, and was called the 
u First Congregational Church of Huron." The 
Rev. Messrs. William Williams and Alvan Coe, 
missionaries of the Connecticut Missionary Socie- 
ty, were present The Church originally consisted 
of six members, viz. 

William Spears, and Love his wife, 

Gilbert Sexton, and Deborah his wife, 

William Adams, and 

Mrs. Eleanor Adams. 
In May 1823, the Church removed from Spears' 
Corners to the center of Milan. At the same time 
they voted to alter their name to that of the " First 
Congregational Church in Milan." 



EVERTON JUBSON. 63 

In June 1825, the form of government was al- 
tered from Congregational to Presbyterian, and 
three Ruling Elders were chosen and regularly set 
apart to their office. In connection with this 
change of government a list of church members is 
given in the records, from which it appears that 
the church contained at that time nine males, and 
twenty-eight females, making thirty-seven in all. 
Upon Mr. Judson's arrival in the fall of 1829, this 
number had been considerably reduced, for he says, 
in one of his letters, that, in the summer following, 
it reported only thirty-two members to the General 
Assembly. And again, in giving an account of 
Milan, under date of Jan. 30, 1830, he says : " The 
number of families in the village is about sixty ; 
the number of inhabitants not far from four hun- 
dred. Of all these not more than twenty-five or 
thirty profess religion. Of these about twenty are 
Presbyterians." 

In Jan. 1830, the Church petitioned the Presby- 
tery of Huron for permission to change its form of 
government back again from Presbyterian to Con- 
gregational. This petition was granted on condi- 
tion of the assent of two thirds of the members, 
with a recommendation that the following article 
be adopted as a part of their constitution, viz. 
" Any person belonging to a Presbyterian Church, 
or having a preference for the Presbyterian form 
of government, and signifying this at the time 
when he unites with the Church, may be received 
as such, and for him the Standing Committee 



64 MEMOIR OP 

shall be in the place of a Board of Elders in the 
Presbyterian Church." 

Mr. Judson preached his first sermon in Milan 
Oct. 4, 1829, in "the yellow schoolhouse," oppo- 
site to the present Methodist Church. Of the at- 
tendance on that day, so memorable to the people 
of Milan, he says : " Although it was a pleasant 
day, there were not more than thirty present." 
But these thirty appear to have been " men that 
had understanding of the times to know what 
Israel ought to do," for, as we have seen, they im- 
mediately pressed him to remain with them. The 
number of his hearers steadily increased till, in the 
January following, it was " at least four times as 
large as at first." 

In commencing his pastoral labors he fully 
obeyed the injunction of inspiration, " Whatsoever 
thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might." 
The greatness and solemnity of the work to which 
he had been set apart by his ordination vows filled 
his vision, and called forth his utmost energies. 
He had not the most distant idea of settling qui- 
etly down in his parish, and performing just labor 
enough to satisfy the congregation. On the con- 
trary, he set himself earnestly about the work of 
" breaking up the fallow ground " (to use his own 
expression) in all directions around him. His la- 
bors at this period were most abundant and ex- 
hausting. Besides his regular sermons on the 
Sabbath, which at this period were always written, 
he attended frequent neighborhood meetings in the 



EVERTON JUDSON. 65 

vicinity of his two parishes. To one of his dea- 
cons in Berlin he once said that for some three 
weeks he had not lodged more than one night in a 
place. He was occupied in preaching to the peo- 
ple in the outskirts of his parishes wherever he 
could find them. He preached in log-houses or 
barns as opportunity offered. Another of his pa- 
rishioners says of him, " He was almost always on 
horseback." 

These severe labors brought on, in the summer 
and fall of 1830, a fresh attack of his old com- 
plaint, the ague. Writing on this subject to Mr. 
Barber, he says, Sept. 17, 1830 : " At the time I 
wrote last I think I was recovering. Since that 
time, in consequence of too much exertion, I have 
suffered a second attack from the ague. I have 
again broken it, and am fast recovering my health. 
At the same time a little exposure would probably 
bring it on again. So long as I am careful of my 
health, I can preach four or five times a week 
without inconvenience." 

These earnest and abundant labors were sig- 
nally owned of God. Of Berlin the account has 
already been given. So early as March 1830, he 
speaks of the success of his labors in connection 
with his sense of his own unworthiness. " You 
speak," he writes to Mr. Barber, " in your last let- 
ter of the probable effect of my sickness" — the 
sickness noticed in the last chapter — " in bringing 
me near to God. I fear you are mistaken. It ap- 
pears to me that I was never so far from God in 
6* 



66 MEMOIR OF 

my life — so cold, so dead, so destitute of a spirit 
of prayer, so utterly unlike what a Christian should 
be ; and yet, strange as it may seem, God seems 
to be blessing my labors. The Church in this 
place is revived almost inconceivably since I came 
here." He then goes on to speak of the condition 
of things in Berlin, as already given. 

In the September following, a Conference of 
Churches, which met regularly once a month, held 
its sessions in Milan. Of this he says : " It was 
productive of some good. Our meetings are much 
increased in numbers and interest. Several are 
seriously inquiring what they must do to be saved, 
and two or three are indulging the hope that they 
have passed from death unto life. I have been 
led for some time past to believe that when I first 
began to preach here I placed too much depend- 
ence on my own arm, and looked too little to the 
Holy Spirit to make the truth effectual. Are we 
not in danger of feeling too little the inefficiency 
of our own arm ? I am not changing my theo- 
logical views with regard to the adaptedness of 
truth to produce the effect. But I think I see more 
of the stubbornness of the human heart in oppo- 
sing it, unless it is bowed by the omnipotent ener- 
gies of the Holy Spirit." 

In this excellent state of mind we discern a pre- 
paration to receive a refreshing from God's pre- 
sence. It is not surprising that, a few months af- 
terwards, Jan. 15, 1831, he should write to Mr. 
Barber as follows : " Shall I tell you what God 



EVERTON JUDSON. 67 

has done for us in Milan ? Seventeen have united 
with the church by profession. At our commu- 
nion in February probably twelve or fifteen others 
will come forward. The number of hopeful con- 
versions has been from twenty-five to forty. Since 
you left, the work has been more among heads of 
families. * * * Our little church, which reported 
only thirty-two members to the last General As- 
sembly, will be able to report probably from 
seventy-five to eighty next spring. What hath 
God wrought ! Let us magnify the Lord together. 
The number that attend meeting has considerably 
increased since you were here. The house is 
scarcely sufficient to hold them. Conversions are 
not as frequent of late, although the attention does 
not seem to diminish. Our meetings have never 
been better attended than at present." 

Again he writes, Feb. 25, 1831 : " T believe since 
I saw you my public labors have amounted to 
more than six sermons per week on an average, 
besides considerable pastoral labor in visiting 
families, schools, Sabbath schools, etc. * * * I know 
I am too prone — far too prone — to magnify my- 
self instead of exalting God. 1 am however more 
and more convinced that God is all and in all in 
the conversion of sinners. I think I see more and 
more of the weakness and inefficiency of means, 
until they are set home by the Holy Ghost sent 
down from heaven. Since I wrote you last there 
have been occasional instances of conversion. 
Our meetings on the Sabbath and in the evening 



bO MEMOIR OF 

are considerably more crowded, and our Sabbath 
school has considerably increased. * * * God is 
doing much for us in this County. The revival 
continues in the congregations of Lyme and 
Ridgefield. Several conversions have recently oc- 
curred in Ruggles, and indeed there have been 
conversions more or less in six or eight of the 
churches of this County within a few weeks. - The 
whole number that have united with the Church 
in Milan within a year is forty-two. Eight or ten 
will unite with us next communion. Till within 
one year ago the moral aspect of this County was 
probably as dark as that of Marion. Three years 
ago there were only two ministers of our denomi- 
nation. Now there are eight who bestow their 
whole time upon the work. There had hardly 
been a dozen conversions in five years previous to 
this year." 

The above extract shows that it was a time of 
general religious interest in that region, as indeed 
it was throughout a large portion of the United 
States. Of this he speaks in another letter dated 
July 18, 1831 : " There has not been a time for a 
year and a half in which there has not been a 
revival in some one of our churches. Yesterday 
about thirty were added to the Church in Ver- 
million. The Sabbath before, twenty were added 
to the Church in Lyme. The Sabbath before 
that, nine were added to the Church in Wakeman, 
and several of our churches expect to receive addi- 
tions soon. Thus you see God is doing great 
things for us." 



EVERTON JUDSON. 69 

The following extracts from his Reports to the 
Home Missionary Society, which appeared in the 
Home Missionary for March and May 1831, will 
be a suitable close to the notice of this revival. 
" During the last three months I have attended 
most of the time four stated weekly meetings in 
different parts of my congregations, and occasional 
meetings frequently. The contrast between the 
religious aspect of things here now, and what it 
was one year since, is very wide. Considering 
the sparseness of our population, the revival has 
probably been as extensive here as in many places 
among our favored churches at the East, where 
they count hundreds among the hopeful converts." 
— Vol III p. 222. 

" Twenty have united with our Church, [since 
the last Report,] eighteen of them by confession, 
which, added to the seventeen, before reported, 
gives thirty-five who have united with us, as the 
fruits of this revival. Others are expected to unite 
with us at our next communion. The whole num- 
ber that have united with the Milan Church with- 
in a year is forty-eight. This, when we take into 
consideration that the whole number antecedent 
to that period was only thirty-two, may be re- 
garded as a large accession to our numbers." — 
Vol IV p. 11. 

While Mr. Judson's pastoral labors were greatly 
multiplied, he did not, as we have already seen, 
forget the cause of Sabbath Schools. In addition 
to the care which he bestowed upon the two in 



70 MEMOIR OF 

his own parishes, he exerted himself for their es- 
tablishment in the county. " I am expecting soon," 
he writes in the spring of 1830, "to visit the 
County for the purpose of forming Sabbath 
Schools in eight or ten places." A County Sab- 
bath School Union had been previously formed by 
another agency, called the Huron County Sabbath 
School Union. In behalf of this he wrote, as 
Secretary, to Philadelphia, ordering $150 worth of 
books, for which he promised to make remittances 
as soon as the books could be sold. He was not 
able to obtain credit for the books upon terms 
which he thought reasonable, and was highly of- 
fended at the conditions proposed. Upon this he 
immediately sat down and drew up a subscription 
which he headed with the sum of $10, mounted 
his horse, and rode through the county, determined,, 
as he said, that Huron County should have a de- 
pository of its own if he paid for it himself. He 
raised something over $100. " We are indepen- 
dent," he writes,, " and get our books at New York^ 
or Utica, or wherever else we please. I keep the 
depository, and Dr. Harris is my clerk." This 
movement was highly characteristic. 

In the year 1831, Mr. Judson's views underwent 
a great change in respect to the measures to be 
used for the promotion of revivals. This change 
may be summarily described as a conversion to 
the system of protracted meetings — " Four Days' 
Meetings " they were then called — with the usual 
appendages of " anxious seats," and the like. He 



EVERT0N JUDSON. 71 

had an agency for the New York Evangelist, 
which was, at that time, strongly committed to 
the measures of Mr. Finney and his coadjutors, 
and it was probably through the influence of that 
paper that his mind was first turned in this direc- 
tion. His letters show that, in accordance with 
the native ardor of his character, he went into 
this system, respecting which he had not long be- 
fore expressed himself unfavorably, with all his 
soul. He speaks in one of his letters, written in 
May, of his intention, during a contemplated jour- 
ney to the East, to spend, if practicable, a week or 
two with Mr. Finney. He adds : " It is the wish 
of this Presbytery, at least of most of the mem- 
bers, that I should invite him to visit this County." 
Respecting this declaration it should be remarked 
that he speaks only of the wishes of members of 
the Presbytery unofficially expressed. They were 
not unanimous in such a wish, and it was never 
carried into execution. But from that time on- 
ward, till the close of the year 1834, his labors in 
Four Days' meetings were very abundant. To 
enumerate all the places where he assisted in con- 
ducting them is impossible. Eden, Tiffin, Bloom, 
Lyme, Fitchville, Mansfield, Plymouth, Maxville, 
Monroeville, Berlin, Ruggles, Windham, may be 
mentioned. In company with the Rev. Enoch 
Conger he attended nearly all the protracted meet- 
ings of the region. For this purpose they occa- 
sionally obtained leave of absence from their con- 
gregations for specified periods. In communica- 



72 MEMOIR OF 

ting to the Ohio Observer an account of the revi- 
val in Eden, Mr. Judson says : " Brother Conger 
and myself have obtained leave of our respective 
congregations to be absent three months during the 
remainder of this year. Our object is to spend 
the time exclusively in protracted meetings. A 
large proportion of it we expect to spend in these 
Western counties." The meetings were generally 
four days in length, and were conducted after the 
usual manner of protracted meetings at that pe- 
riod, with three sermons a day, and usually prayer- 
meetings before sermon. Mr. Conger generally 
called out the anxious and Mr. Judson addressed 
them, setting forth their condition and prospects 
as sinners, the reasonableness of God's service, 
and the excellency of the gospel method of salva- 
tion. Towards the close of these meetings they 
sometimes called upon those who indulged the 
hope of having passed from death to life to rise. 
This was always after clear and definite instruc- 
tion respecting the nature of true religion. The 
success of these meetings was various, but was, 
upon the whole, as great as usually attended such 
services. 

Within the bounds of Huron Presbytery they 
never had much foreign help* Messrs. Judson and 
Conger once attended a meeting in Carlyle con- 
ducted by Rev. Lucius Foote. It rested with 
them to say whether he should or should not be 
invited to labor within the bounds of Huron Pres- 
bytery. But they, after attentive observationj re- 



EVERTON JUDSON. 73 

turned without inviting him, fully persuaded that 
it was best for the ministers to keep the manage- 
ment of these meetings in their own hands. 

At the close of the series of meetings held with- 
in the bounds of the Presbytery of Huron, he be- 
gan to express to his colleague, doubts as to the 
utility of this form of advancing Christ's kingdom. 
He said : " I do not wish to speak against them 
publicly, but I have serious doubts whether upon 
the whole they do good." His objections arose 
from their extreme liability to perversion, and from 
the fact that they were actually perverted. To an 
intimate friend he once said: "These measures 
for promoting revivals which I have employed in 
connection with protracted meetings have been 
greatly abused by the prominent leaders : I feel 
that to encourage them further would be wrong : 
to return to the beaten paths is now the best way." 
His mind became gradually more and more set- 
tled in this conviction, and he positively refused 
to attend one that was held in Plymouth after Mr. 
Conger took charge of that congregation. The 
results of the protracted meeting held in his own 
congregation near the close of the year 1835, of 
which notice will be taken hereafter, contributed 
largely to determine his mind against the utility 
of their continuance. From that time till the day 
of his death he firmly maintained the ground that 
the time for this kind of efforts was past, and, in 
promoting the cause of Christ among his people, 
7 



74 MEMOIR. 

he relied exclusively upon the ordinary means of 
grace. 

It should be added here that, during his efforts 
in protracted meetings, he adopted from necessity 
the method of preaching extemporaneously. Of 
this he was for some time a warm advocate, and 
practiced it exclusively. But he returned again, 
about the year 1837, to his former habit of writing. 
This two-fold change will be considered more at 
large in another place. It is referred to here sim- 
ply as a part of his history. 



CHAPTER VI. 



CONTINUATION OF HIS LABORS IN MILAN TILL THE 
CLOSE OF THE YEAR 1836. 

In the fall of the year 1831, Mr. Judson found 
leisure, notwithstanding the multiplicity of his 
labors, to form the plan of an institution which 
was subsequently put into successful operation 
mainly by his energy and indomitable perseve- 
rance, and which still exists as a monument of his 
wisdom and forethought. This was the Huron 
Institute. The first notice of this is in the fol- 
lowing letter to Mr. Barber, dated Sept. 29, 1831. 

u At the late meeting of our Presbytery we re- 
solved to establish a Manual Labor School as 
soon as practicable. Its location will probably be 
at Milan. We shall employ some one as a per- 
manent Principal, with the expectation that he 
will have such assistance as the growing interests 
of the Institute may demand. We intend to have 
a Ladies' Department as soon as we can support 
it. Our first object is to train young men for Col- 
lege, and, perhaps, carry some through their studies 



76 MEMOIR OF 

for the ministry where they may be too old for 
College, and may wish to cut short their course. 
Our second object is to prepare teachers for our 
common schools. Our third, to finish the educa- 
tion of youth who expect to engage in the com- 
mon business of life. You see we are looking for 
something large. The Presbytery have appointed 
a Board of twelve men, ministers and laymen, 
who are to obtain a charter, and to possess the 
power of filling their own vacancies, and have the 
entire control of the Institution. I am one of that 
Board. At its commencement we shall, perhaps, 
be obliged to throw our three departments into 
one. The whole county will patronize it. There 
is no place in the county where young men may 
fit for either of the above callings. * * * The in- 
stitution is a child of my own creating, and my 
whole soul is embarked in it. We intend to at- 
tach to it a small farm and a mechanic's shop." 

In a subsequent letter to Mr. Barber, written in 
the December following, he says : " The Board 
had pledged themselves to raise $2,000, provided 
that any place would subscribe the same sum for 
its location. Three places in the county came 
forward with pledges to that amount — Portland 
[Sandusky city], Monroeville, and Milan. * * * 
At a meeting of our Presbytery last week, they 
took the pledge of $2,000 off the hands of the 
Trustees. So you see we start with a capital of 
$4,000. "We intend to erect a brick building as 
soon as practicable in the spring, probably three 



EVERTON JUDSON. 77 

stories, and thirty-five by forty-five or fifty. We 
intend also to procure some chemical and philo- 
sophical apparatus. We hope to have an estab- 
lishment where we may fit for College all who 
may wish, and where young men may acquire 
still higher branches who may be too old to ac- 
quire a liberal education, and still wish to enter 
the ministry. We shall also, as soon as practica- 
ble, sustain a female department, and a depart- 
ment of English studies for young men." 

The Institute was to be a manual-labor School, 
in accordance with the universal fashion of the 
day. It had originally a shop, with about twelve 
acres of land. The manual labor part of it took 
the same course and came to the same end that it 
did in other similar establishments. The three 
departments of which he speaks never existed in 
the Institute as separately organized parts. When 
he speaks of carrying "some young men through 
their studies for the ministry, where they may be 
too old for College, and may wish to cut short 
their course," he is to be understood as referring 
to the studies preparatory to the proper theological 
course ; for it does not appear that he ever pro- 
posed to give theological education at the Insti- 
tute, or to put young men into the ministry with- 
out such an education. But, although a firm friend 
and supporter of the regular collegiate course, he 
believed, in common with many others, that ex- 
ceptions might occasionally exist which ought to 
be provided for. 



78 MEMOIR OF 

The people of Milan, who had obtained the loca- 
tion of the Institute, subsequently increased their 
subscription to $2,600. In the whole of the enter- 
prise Mr. Judson was the moving power. It was 
not his nature to commit to others the execution 
of a plan which he had much at heart. He ob- 
tained all the subscriptions, and took upon his 
shoulders the whole burden of superintending the 
erection of the building — a burden which was im- 
mensely increased by the newness of the region — 
even to the purchase of the materials, and to the 
contracts with the workmen. The edifice was 
completed and the Institute went into operation 
in 1832. 

The first principal was the Rev. Eldad Barber, 
with whom he had maintained a constant episto- 
lary intercourse since the time of their separation 
at Cleveland in 1829. The cessation of this in- 
tercourse, upon the removal of Mr. Barber to Mi- 
lan, deprives us of one of the most certain means 
of following Mr. Judson in his toils and enterprises. 
For this reason the notices of his ministerial and 
other labors must henceforward be briefer and 
more imperfect. It is sufficient here to say that, 
as far as we can follow him, we find his labors in 
the way of preaching and holding meetings as 
abundant as before. In one of his letters to Mr. 
Barber, written in January 1832, he had said : 
" I have undertaken to ride circuit this winter." 
This language having been misunderstood, he, in 
the next letter, explained his meaning as follows : 



EVERTON JUDSON. 79 

" You misunderstood my plan of circuit-riding. 
I preach in Eldridge and Milan as usual, but de- 
vote my evenings almost exclusively to preaching 
in adjacent places through the week." 

The year after the completion of the building 
for the Huron Institute—the year 1833 — the Church 
left "the yellow school-house," and commenced 
worshiping in the lower room of that edifice. 
This appears to have been to the Church a year of 
great prosperity, as the records show the addition 
of thirty-nine persons, twenty-one of whom were 
by profession. A letter written by Dr. Chauncey 
Stuart in the month of June says : " Religion is 
gaining ground here very fast. There are many, 
however, especially of the first settlers of the 
county, who are irreligious. For many years they 
had no preaching, the population being so scat- 
tered. Some of them have become skeptical, and 
others very indifferent, their minds being wholly 
engrossed with the world. Mr. Judson is here, 
and is one of the most efficient men in the county. 
He is a very popular preacher, and is doing much 
good. He is on good terms with all classes of 
men, mingles with them, and gains their good will. 
There have been from fifteen to twenty conver- 
sions in the village since I came here — [he had 
been in Milan about a month.] Mr. Judson has 
preached every Sunday, and Tuesday and Thursday 
evening. He not only puts the machinery in mo- 
tion, (as every thing goes by steam-power now-a- 
days) but keeps putting up the fire under the ket- 
tle himself." 



80 MEMOIR OF 

The concluding paragraph of this letter inti- 
mates that, at this time, Mr. Judson's preaching 
and measures were of an exciting character — too 
exciting, as he was afterwards fully convinced — 
and this accords with the fact already stated that, 
about this time, he expressed in strong language 
his disapprobation of the ground which he had 
formerly taken against exciting measures — ground 
to which he afterwards returned, and upon which 
he stood firm till the day of his death. 

It does not appear, however, that in these labors 
he resorted to the means technically called " new 
measures." His own account of the revival, fur- 
nished by Mr. Reed from a conversation which he 
had with Mr. Judson on board a steamer between 
Buffalo and Sandusky City, and inserted in Ma- 
theson and Heed's Visit to the American Churches, 
is the following: 

" The second occasion [of a revival — he had 
spoken of one in another place] was connected 
with the death of an aged woman, a member of 
the Church, and a l mother in Israel.' She had 
seven children ; they were now grown up and set- 
tled in life ; but, notwithstanding all her instruc- 
tions and prayers, they had become exceedingly 
worldly, and, during her life time, disregarded se- 
rious religion. Her death, however, did what her 
life had failed to do. Her eldest [it should be 
second] daughter was much affected by the event, 
and by the painful reflections it brought with it. 
She was visited, and conversed with. Her hus- 



EVERTON JUDSON. 81 

band came in at the time ; and the conversation, 
without changing its character, naturally turned to 
him ; and the season justified a pointed address, 
and he also fell under the force of salutary convic- 
tion. Another son, who was brought from New 
York to the funeral, and who had been conspicuous 
in the infidel club in that city, became fearfully 
convicted of sin, and was driven to temporary 
despair ; but in the end he confessed his sins, and 
professed Christ with great earnestness and deci- 
sion. In such a rural population these things 
would not be done in a corner, but would be 
known to all. They had a very beneficial effect 
on many ; and the good minister sought a careful 
improvement of the dispensation. The effect on 
this family was that five of the seven children 
were united to the Church ; and the effect of the 
two seasons of revived influence [in Milan and in 
the other place before mentioned] was that about 
one hundred persons gave good ' reason of the 
hope that was in them.' No particularity of 
method was adopted here ; and the anxious seat 
was not used." — Matheson and Reed's Visit. Let- 
ter 10.* 

The above extract is valuable as exhibiting one 
of Mr. Judson's prime excellencies as a pastor, 
which will be considered more at large in another 

* Some corrections should be made of the incidents stated in the 
above letter. The son to whom reference is made was not called 
home to attend his mother's funeral, but had previously relumed. 
There were but four of the family that united with the Church as the 
result of this awakening. 



06 MEMOIR OF 

place — his skill in seizing upon afflictive dispensa- 
tions as the occasion of bringing evangelical truth 
before the mind. 

In February 1835, he was united in marriage to 
Mrs. Catharine B. Stuart. This union was con- 
ducive alike to bis comfort and his usefulness in 
the ministry, and the happy influences resulting 
therefrom were visible to the close of his earthly 
career. 

The labor of superintending the erection of the 
Huron Institute was, after the lapse of a little 
more than two years, followed by a still more ar- 
duous and difficult undertaking, that of erecting a 
brick Church, at an expense exceeding $8,000. 
In January 1835, a few citizens convened, at the 
instance of Mr. N. M. Standard, to devise mea- 
sures for the erection of a house of worship. The 
result was the completion in about two years of 
the present brick Church. The building was pro- 
jected, and much the greater part of the expense 
sustained by those who were not members of the 
Church. The funds were raised by subscription. 
By the concession of all persons in Milan Mr. Jud- 
son was the life and soul of this enterprise. He 
circulated the subscription paper, collected the 
subscription in great part, and was the most active 
and efficient of the building committee- — rather he 
embodied in himself the energies of this commit- 
tee : for he humorously says, in a letter to his sis- 
ter, now Mrs. Abbott, dated August 5, 1835 : 
" Mr. S. and myself do all the business as building 



EVERTON JUDSON. 83 

committee, and as he is gone, the whole business 
devolves on me." The purchases of stone, brick, 
timber, etc., were made by him. " If you wish to 
know how I am employed," he goes on to say in 
the same letter, "just think of me with my little 
brown roundabout, and my big palm hat, stream- 
ing off to Berlin for stones, to Perkins for lime, or 
to Wakeman for lumber, or somewhere else for 
something else, on my old Kate." 

The erection of such a building in a region so 
new, and without foreign aid, was an arduous un- 
dertaking. Few men indeed would have had 
courage to attempt, or resolution and resources of 
ingenuity and contrivance enough to carry through 
the work. In its progress great difficulties were 
encountered. The subscriptions were scattered 
all over the place, and were to be collected at a 
great expense of time and patience. He often 
pledged his personal credit, and 5 at the close of the 
work, found himself loaded with a bank debt of 
$300. This was finally taken off from his hands 
by a voluntary subscription of some of the citizens 
of Milan. 

The course pursued by Mr. Judson, in taking 
upon himself the active supervision of the build- 
ing, even to the purchase of the materials, is not 
to be commended to pastors as an example for 
general imitation. Besides other infelicities con- 
nected with constant absorption in pecuniary 
transactions, it must necessarily draw them away 
from the study, in mind as well as in body, and 



84 MEMOIR OF 

leave their preparations for the Sabbath meagre and 
defective. Though Mr. Judson's christian charac- 
ter and reputation were never tarnished in the 
least by any of the numerous business transac- 
tions in which he was engaged — against this his 
good judgment, his quick perception of what was 
fair and honorable, and his abhorrence of all mean- 
ness were a sufficient guarantee — yet his pulpit 
performances during this period showed that he 
was no exception to the rule that a man's thoughts 
cannot, at one and the same time, be absorbed in 
two different objects. His sermons wanted that 
fulness and body of thought which can be secured 
only by the preacher who complies with the pre- 
cept of inspiration, " Meditate upon these things ; 
give thyself wholly to them ; that thy profiting 
may appear to all." Of this he was himself con- 
scious, and freely admitted that, as a general prin- 
ciple, the minister of Christ should leave such a 
work as this to the laymen of his congregation. 
But he justified himself on the ground that his 
situation was analagous to that of a missionary 
who, as a pioneer preparing the way for future 
laborers, is under the necessity of doing many 
things which, in ordinary circumstances, were bet- 
ter left to others. " The region," so he argued, 
" is new, and unaccustomed to such undertakings. 
If I do not take hold of it personally, it will fail." 
The reaction upon his own mind of this conscious 
deficiency in his pulpit preparations during the 
above period — a deficiency which the best part of 



EVERTON JUDSON. 85 

his congregation felt the most severely — was pro- 
bably one of the causes which led, soon after, to a 
revolution in his habits of preparing sermons, and 
caused him to devote himself with fresh zeal to 
the proper business of the ministry. 

In December 1835, Mr. Judson's congregation 
left the Huron Institute and commenced worship- 
ping in the basement of the new Church. About 
the same time an increased religious interest be- 
gan to manifest itself. Of the progress and results 
of this, Mr. Judson gives the following account 
in a communication to the Ohio Observer dated 
Feb. 13, 1836. 

" It may be well to advert for a moment to the 
previous state of religious feeling and action 
among us. There has been but one communion 
season for some three years or more, (and these 
seasons occur with us every two months,) in which 
some, more or less, have not by profession united 
with this Church, and conversions have occurred 
at short intervals through the greater part of the 
last four years. The last summer however has 
been with us one of unusual stupidity. My own 
feeble health, the people having thereby been de- 
prived, in a great measure, of regular preaching 
and pastoral labor, and the excitement occasioned 
by successful efforts to erect a large and somewhat 
expensive Church, may have been, and probably 
were, the more efficient causes in hindering the 
work of God. Early in the fall several of the 
8 



86 MEMOIR OF 

more active members of the Church became more 
vigilant and more zealous in the discharge of their 
duties to the impenitent, and in their efforts to 
awaken their brethren and sisters in the Church. 

Increased activity among Christians and a more 
general attendance upon religious meetings were 
all the marks of a revival of religion that were no- 
ticed, until the last Sabbath but one of December^ 
when there was a manifest solemnity upon the 
whole congregation. Late in the evening of that 
day, a young man, student in the Huron Institute, 
who had been for several years a confirmed Deist, 
sent for me to call at his room. I found him in 
extreme anguish of mind. Before morning he be- 
came willing to obey the Savior and receive him 
by faith. In the course of ten or twelve days, 
thera were about an equal number of conversions, 
chiefly of youth, connected with the Institute. Mr. 
Hickok, the Principal, and the students of the 
Institution were very active in extending their la- 
bors into the village. Just at this time Br. R. 
Stone came into the place, on his way westward, 
and, at the solicitation of the Church, spent two 
weeks in very efficient labors for the promotion of 
the revival. One week of this time was employed 
in a protracted meeting which resulted in great 
good.* The work of grace still goes forward, and 
every week from the commencement of the revival 
to the present time has added some to the number 

* In consequence of the feeble state of Mr. Judson's health the labor 
of preaching fell mainly upon Mr. Stone. 



EVERTON JUDSON. 87 

of converts. Last Sabbath was our communion 
season, — thirty-six, three of whom by letter, con- 
nected themselves with our Church. 

About one half the number knelt around the 
platform to receive baptism ; the others had been 
baptized on the faith of their parents. Among 
them were persons of almost every age and of, till 
recently, almost every description of character. 
An unusually large number of the converts is 
gathered from the ranks of Infidelity and Univer- 
salism, where, in perfect keeping with their faith, 
they have formerly been engaged in Sabbath- 
breaking, profanity, gambling, the midnight ca- 
rouse, and such other works as were the legitimate 
fruits of such faith. Others will probably unite 
with us hereafter." 

Mr. Judson, at the time when this communica- 
tion was written, reposed great confidence in these 
converts, and spoke of them to prominent mem- 
bers of his Church as appearing well. In a letter 
to his sister, of the same date as the above, after 
detailing the facts already given, he adds : " The 
addition, at one time, of a number greater than 
the whole Church the first year of my labors, has 
created emotions of no ordinary interest. Nine 
were added two months before. I think our 
Church now numbers about 180. I wonder, when 
I remember the unworthy instrument of which 
God has made use in bringing sinners to himself. 
I am astonished at myself, so unfruitful and un- 
worthy, and yet God has, in no mean measure. 



88 MEMOIR OF 

owned my labors. I believe there has been but 
one communion season in which some have not, 
for the first time, sat down with us at the table of 
our blessed Lord. The revival still goes on. 
Every week adds to the number of the converts." 

The sanguine hopes which he entertained re- 
specting the fruits of this revival, were, in many 
cases, destined to end in disappointment — such 
disappointment as he did not experience in the 
case of any other revival that took place under his 
ministry. Numbers of the converts, indeed, en- 
dured the test of time, and proved themselves to 
be stable Christians ; but an unusually large pro- 
portion were of that class who " receive the word 
with joy," but " have no root, which for a while be- 
lieve, and in time of temptation fall away." Min- 
isters ought not to be lightly censured for the apos- 
tasy of their converts. Such apostasies happened 
under the preaching of inspired apostles, and will 
happen in all ages. All for which the preacher 
can be justly held responsible is "rightly dividing 
the word of truth," so as to adapt it with care and 
discrimination to the wants of the several classes 
of his hearers. But when, as in the present case, 
the number of the inconstant is greatly multiplied, 
we may lawfully inquire after the causes. 

One of these causes maybe found in the previous 
character of many of the converts. Destitute, as they 
were, of a religious education, and, consequently, ig- 
norant of the principles of the gospel, they were far 
more liable to take up false ideas of religion than 



EVERTON JUDSON. 89 

those who have been trained up in the bosom of 
christian families. The experience of the christian 
Church in all ages shows that such persons, when 
they first become interested in religion, need, as a 
general rule, a large amount of instruction on 
many points of christian faith and practice, that 
they may become well settled and grounded in the 
christian life ; and that they are, moreover, pecu- 
liarly liable to mistake the false fire of human ex- 
citement for the genuine flame of heavenly love. 

Another cause manifestly was the hurried man- 
ner of their reception into the Church. Prudence 
would have dictated that, in the case, at least, of 
persons dug out of the mire of infidelity, there 
should have been considerable delay, enough, cer- 
tainly, to furnish opportunity for repeated inter- 
views with the candidates for church-membership. 
But no such delay took place. The revival did 
not assume a marked character until the last Sab- 
bath of December : the supposed conversions took 
place throughout the month of January, and, on 
the first Sabbath in February, we find thirty-three 
of them admitted to the Church. 

It may be added that the exciting topics which 
were, by the concession of all who attended this 
protracted meeting, made very prominent, were 
better adapted to arouse the minds of the young 
and ignorant, than to enlighten them in the nature 
of true religion. Now universal experience, as 
well as the example of our Lord and his Apostles, 
shows that men need not only to be excited to 
8* 



90 MEMOIR OF 

seek the way of life, but also to be carefully di- 
rected into it, and taught to distinguish it from 
the many false ways that lead off from it ; and 
that where this necessary work is, for any cause, 
omitted, it may be expected that false hopes will 
greatly abound. When we take into account all 
these circumstances we need not be greatly sur- 
prised that one who is every way a competent 
witness should bear the following testimony : — 
" I do not know of any who had previously been 
infidel in their sentiments who persevered." 

This painful result administered to Mr. Judson 
a salutary lesson of instruction which he did not 
fail to improve. " It is my impression," says the 
witness whose words have been just quoted, " that 
this was the turning point in his history. His 
manner of preaching began from that time to be 
more mellow, and, in speaking of this effort, he 
condemned it. He never afterwards engaged in 
protracted meetings." 



CHAPTER VII. 



FROM THE BEGINNING OF 1837, TO THE CLOSE OF 
HIS PUBLIC LABORS IN DECEMBER 1847. 

The new Church was dedicated on the last day 
of January 1837. On this occasion Mr. Judson 
preached a written sermon, the first written sermon 
of his that is extant after the period of extempore 
sermons already noticed. When the congregation 
had become settled in their new house of worship, 
and he had obtained more leisure, he began with 
the custom of writing one sermon a week, which 
he delivered in the morning. His afternoon dis- 
courses were unwritten. During the last three 
years of his ministry, however, he generally 
preached two written sermons, the second being 
one that had been delivered on a former occasion. 
Dissatisfaction on his own part, as well as on that 
of many of the best men in his congregation, was 
the cause of his resuming the practice of writing. 
There was, on the minds of some of his people, a 
prejudice against written discourses, but, having 
made up his mind in respect to his duty, he went 



92 MEMOIR OF 

steadily forward, and all complaint soon disap- 
peared. From this time to the close of his min- 
istry his sermons steadily improved in fulness and 
richness of thought. 

It was about the same time also that he began 
to give increased attention to reading. Up to this 
period his library had been but scantily furnished. 
After he resumed the habit of writing his dis- 
courses, it grew rapidly. Nor was it kept for 
empty show. No man better understood the art 
of appropriating to the topic under discussion the 
facts and principles that occurred in the course of 
his reading. From encyclopaedias, from books of 
travel, from civil as well as natural history, he 
drew illustrations of evangelical truths. And, as 
his reading was various and extensive, this habit 
imparted, in the latter part of his ministry, a pecu- 
liar interest to his discourses. 

Intimately connected with these two things, the 
change in his habit of preparing sermons and his 
increased attention to reading, was a wider range 
of topics in his pulpit ministrations. In a sermon 
preached before the Synod of the Western Reserve 
in the fall of 1837, he dwelt at large upon the in- 
jurious consequences of a minister's confining 
himself too exclusively to a few favorite themes, 
whether they be of the tender and moving kind, 
or of the more solemn and awful; and insisted 
earnestly on the importance of exhibiting all the 
parts of gospel truth in just proportion. He spoke 
from his own experience. To an intimate friend 



EVERTON JUDSON. 93 

and fellow-laborer he said : " I once thought that, 
by dwelling on exciting topics when my heart was 
warm, I could keep the attention of the people: 
but I found I was mistaken. This convinced me 
that there was a fault somewhere. I determined 
to return to my old habit of preaching written ser- 
mons upon less exciting topics, and with a wider 
range of subjects, and see what the result would 
be." This method he found more successful. His 
hearers remarked that, from this time forth, there 
was a manifest improvement in his discourses. 
They were fuller, more instructive, and left behind 
a deeper and more definite impression. In the 
Biblical Repository for 1847 is an article from his 
pen (ascribed by mistake to another author) on the 
" Range of Topics for the Pulpit," in which he 
sets forth in a very striking way the necessity of 
variety in the themes of the pulpit. This article 
also, like the sermon just alluded to, sprung from 
the depths of his own experience, and although, in 
some few passages, unguarded, and liable, perhaps, 
to misapprehension, it is, upon the whole, very in- 
structive to the young minister, and furnishes the 
key which unlocks the secret of the author's suc- 
cess in maintaining year after year the interest of 
his hearers. 

The same vear of 1837 witnessed his installa- 

%/ 

tion as pastor of the Church in Milan. This event 
took place in the latter part of May. To a formal 
settlement he had before been, if not opposed, at 
least indifferent. For nearly eight years had he 



94 MEMOIR OF 

ministered to the people of Milan with no other 
than a temporary engagement from year to year 
between himself and them. When he first com- 
menced his labors in Milan the churches in the 
region had fallen into a very unsettled state. Dis- 
missions were frequent, and often for slight rea- 
sons. He seems to have unfortunately taken up 
the idea that, in the existing state of things, in- 
stallations could be only an unmeaning ceremony. 
His people had early given him a call, upon which 
he had, for years, neglected to act. The influence 
of his example was greatly felt in the vicinity, and 
went to encourage laxity in the relations of minis- 
ters to their people. When this state of things 
had existed for a considerable length of time, 
Judge Brown of Brownhelm, who always insisted 
earnestly on the importance of installations, sent 
to Mr. Judson, whom he numbered among his in- 
timate friends, a message to the purport that his 
example on the subject of installation was doing 
great injury to the churches, and that it furnished 
the strongest argument which they could urge 
against its importance. By this remonstrance he 
was deeply affected, and, from that time, he began 
to reconsider the grounds on which he had stood, 
and finally decided to yield to the wishes of both 
his people and his brethren in the ministry. 

In a letter to his parents, written a short time 
before his installation, he represents himself as in- 
fluenced mainly by the wishes of his people. " My 
people," he says, " have been urgent for some time 



EVERTON JUDSON. 95 

past to have me installed as their pastor. I have 
regarded it as rather an unnecessary form, and 
have felt reluctant ; but have finally consented to 
the call of the Presbytery for my installation two 
weeks from next Tuesday. The courtship has 
been a long one — nearly eight years. Whether it 
will be a happy match time must determine. 
Should it not prove so, the evil will not be ascribed, 
I think, to "hasty union." The salary proposed 
in the call is $600, payable in four equal quarterly 
installments. There has never been even a tempo- 
rary engagement between us until the present time. 
I have always been at liberty to go, and they to 
turn me off at a moment's warning.* I do not 
suppose it will change my feelings or conduct an 
iota. It is to gratify the wishes of my people 
rather than my own, that I have consented to their 
solicitations. They have heretofore been governed 
by their own benevolence in the amount of my 
salary ; yet I have fared better than I had a right 
to expect. I suppose few ministers have a kinder 
or more affectionate people. They are stable, con- 
sistent, and intelligent also. I should not feel re- 
luctant to compare my Church with almost any 
Church in Connecticut for intelligence, or benevo- 
lence, or high christian character." 

After the " union " between him and his people 
was consummated, he seems to have felt that it 

* This language seems to be unwarrantably strong. His congrega- 
tion had, if the author is rightly informed, acted from year to year in 
reference to the employment of him as their minister, though there had 
been no fixed permanent arrangement between him and them. 



96 



MEMOIR OF 



was something more than a mere form, and his 
influence was, thenceforward, in favor of the regu- 
lar induction of ministers into office. 

When now we take into account all these near- 
ly cotemporaneous changes — his return to written 
discourses ; his increased attention to reading ; 
the wider range of his pulpit themes ; his regular 
induction into the pastoral office ; and the mel- 
lowed tone of his ministrations — we see that his 
mind received, about this time, a new and strong 
impulse in an upward direction ; and that his 
ministry, although remaining in its essential fea- 
tures the same, was yet cast in a new and more 
perfect mould. 

If we look for the human grounds of these 
changes, we shall find them partly in his own 
experience and reflection upon his past mistakes, 
and partly in the silent influence of other minds 
with which he was brought into contact — an in- 
fluence to which he was peculiarly susceptible, 
and from which he did not fail to derive profit, 
though perhaps often, as is the case with all other 
men, in an unconscious way. 

It was not till a later period that he introduced 
the plan of Bible classes, for conducting which he 
possessed rare qualifications. Some years before 
his death he fell into the method of engaging a 
few who were willing to answer questions, while 
the main body of the youth sat as silent hearers. 
He occupied most of the time in expanding the 
answers to the various questions, and enlarging 



EVERTON JUDSON. 97 

upon the topics which came up in the course of 
the exercise ; introducing, as he proceeded, illus- 
trations gathered from his reading and his inter- 
course with society. In this way he went through 
the gospel of Luke and the Acts of the Apostles, 
and then took the Epistle to the Romans. He 
had nearly completed this Epistle when disease 
arrested him. On this exercise he placed great 
reliance as a means of interesting and instructing 
the youth of his congregation. To an intimate 
friend he said that he spent more time in prepa- 
ring for his Bible class than for either of his other 
services, and that he regarded it as a more efficient 
means of instructing his people than any other. 
In lecturing before his Bible class on the destruc- 
tion of Jerusalem, he gave an elaborate description 
of the temple, and conveyed to the minds of his 
hearers an idea of its size by comparing it with 
known areas in Milan. By the aid of such illus- 
trations he added much interest to the exercise. 

He also delivered, during the same period, 
several courses of sermons on various topics. 
Among these are seven on the Duties of Parents ; 
four on the Church ; eight on the History of Fa- 
naticism ; and seven on the Evidences of Revela- 
tion. The last of these courses, which cost him 
a great amount of labor and research, was never 
completed. The exhaustion incident to the pre- 
paration of such a series of discourses was one of 
the causes that contributed to bring on that fatal 

9 



y» MEMOIR OF 

attack which put an end to his labors in the 
ministry. 

From the year 1837 to the close of his ministry, 
his labors, if not externally so varied and exhaust- 
ing as in some former years, were yet very abun- 
dant, and the amount of preparation bestowed 
upon them was far greater than before. It was 
the privilege of the author to spend a Sabbath 
with him in the spring of 1847. At this time the 
regular order of his exercises on the Sabbath, be- 
sides the Thursday evening meeting, was as fol- 
lows : — two sermons from the pulpit, in preparing 
the former of which he was occupied till the very 
hour of meeting ; an afternoon neighborhood meet- 
ing at five o'clock in the north part of his parish 
four or five miles from his house of worship, where 
he delivered a familiar extemporaneous address ; 
and, finally, a Bible class in the evening in the 
body of the Church. To this latter exercise he 
attached great importance as a means of interest- 
ing the youth of his congregation, and he had evi- 
dently prepared himself for it with much care. 
The lesson was on the Epistle to the Romans, 
and he unfolded some of the deepest principles of 
the gospel in a very simple and happy manner. 
To a suggestion that the amount of labor which 
he had taken upon himself was greater than he 
could sustain, he answered, " I mean to make 
these labors easy. Work does not come so hard 
to me as to some." When further pressed with 
the inexpediency of undertaking so much, he cut 



EVERTON JUDSON. 99 

the matter short by replying : " Brother B ," 

(this was with him a usual way of beginning an 
earnest and decided remark,) " I cannot keep my 
young people together without labor. If a minis- 
ter would keep up the interest of his congregation 
in these times he must work." 

During the whole of this latter period of his 
ministry the growth of his Church was steady and 
healthful. Some seasons of special religious in- 
terest are to be noted. The first was in the winter 
of 1839-40. It commenced in the northern part of 
his parish, to which it was mainly confined. All 
the public exercises were conducted by Mr. Judson 
himself. He held meetings in one of the school- 
houses every night for a week or more, then every 
other night, and afterwards less frequently. He 
also held meetings for religious conversation in 
different houses in the neighborhood, and visited 
from house to house. This revival was remarka- 
ble for the conversion of a number of heads of 
families. Some of the youth were interested in it, 
but the majority were heads of families. The 
number who were added to the Church by profes- 
sion in 1840 was twenty -four. 

In the fall and winter of 1842 there was an unu- 
sual religious interest mostly among the youth of 
the congregation. In the year following, as the 
result of this, fourteen united with the Church by 
profession. 

A very interesting religious interest existed 
throughout the entire year of 1846, and quite a 



100 MEMOIR OF 

number were added to the Church. There con- 
tinued to be more or less conversions till Mr. Jud- 
son was laid aside by his last illness. The re- 
cords of the Church show the addition by profes- 
sion of twenty-three persons during the years 1846 
and 1847. The whole number added to the 
Church by profession, from 1838 to 1847 inclusive, 
is seventy persons. 

This historical sketch of the progress of religion 
in Milan may be very properly closed with an ex- 
tract from one of Mr. Judson's letters written to a 
friend in Connecticut in November 1846, which 
contains his own view of the matter. 

" Our Church has held on an even course most 
of the time since I came here. There is a large 
per centage of our Western population that is of 
a floating character. For three years preceding 
this, as many as sixty-five members of our Church 
have removed out of the place. I think, take one 
year with another, we dismiss on letter as many 
as we receive by letter. There is, however, a large 
portion of the stable and valuable part of our 
Church that remain, and have been here for years. 
When I came here, seventeen years ago, there 
were thirty members. We make one report yearly 
to the Presbytery, and, during the seventeen years, 
each successive report has been a little larger than 
the report of the previous year. We now report 
214. It is in size the second Church on the West- 
ern Reserve. The First Church in Cleveland is 
the only one that has a greater number of mem- 



EVERTON JUDSON. 101 

bers. When I came here there were within the 
same bounds forty-five churches that numbered 
more members than this. We owe much to God 
for such continued prosperity: nay, it is all of 
him." 

In August 1842, he was elected a member of the 
Board of Trustees of Western Reserve College. 
At the same time an urgent request was presented 
to him to relinquish his pastoral office in Milan, 
that he might take an agency for the endowment 
of ihe College. This was a dark period in the 
history of this institution, and the request was 
urged upon him with no little importunity. Mr. 
Judson was now placed in a very trying situation. 
On the one side he was greatly interested in be- 
half of the College, and ready to make almost any 
sacrifice that he felt could be lawfully made for its 
good. Conversing on the subject with the author, 
he said, in his peculiar and emphatic tone, 

" Brother B , if the Western Reserve College 

is to die, I wish to lay my head on the same 
block " — words which forcibly expressed the feel- 
ing of more than one of its friends. 

But, on the other side, he found himself unable 
to entertain the idea of leaving a Church and con- 
gregation that had grown up under his watch and 
care, and very many of whom he numbered among 
his spiritual children. To his confidential friends 
he often said, " You do'nt know how my heart 
yearns over these members of the flock who have 
9* 



102 MEMOIR. 

been brought in under my own instrumentality." 
He discovered also that he was likely to meet with 
the strong opposition of the leading men in his 
Church and congregation, and feared the results 
of such a step in such circumstances. It was 
these considerations, growing out of his pastoral 
relations, and not any balancing of worldly mo- 
tives, that induced him to decline the offer. 

His Church, however, by a formal vote passed 
January 8, 1843, granted him leave of absence for 
three months, to engage in a temporary agency 
for the College. Mr. William Russell was en- 
gaged by the College to supply his pulpit in the 
mean time. As the result of this agency, which 
lasted three months, there are recorded in the Col- 
lege books donations amounting to between three 
and four thousand dollars. A considerable part of 
these was in property and not in money, the finan- 
cial affairs of the Reserve being at that time in a 
depressed condition. He also raised, subsequently 
to this agency, sundry sums for the relief of the 
College, one of which he brought with himself 
upon his last visit to the institution in the sum- 
mer of 1847. 

Mr. Judson's services as a Trustee were always 
highly valued both by the Board and by the Fa- 
culty. His excellent judgment and his uncommon 
talents for business were warmly enlisted in the 
work of promoting its welfare, and when he was 
smitten down by the hand of disease the College 
felt that it had lost the services of one of its most 
efficient friends. 



CHAPTER VIII. 



REVIEW OF HIS PUBLIC LIFE. 

In the preceding brief sketch of Mr. Judson's 
life and labors the historical order has been fol- 
lowed. But it has been impossible, in pursuing 
this order, to give a full and satisfactory view of 
him in his various capacities as a public man. 
The difficulty of doing so is increased from the 
fact that, for the largest part of his ministry, but 
few letters written by him can be found ; and also 
from his never having kept a diary of his labors. 
To the latter practice he was decidedly opposed, 
on the ground of its constituting a strong tempta- 
tion to throw a false coloring over one's christian 
life, if not by positive misstatements, at least by 
omissions of the less commendable passages in it, 
and by giving a false prominence to those of a 
better character. He often expressed the opinion 
that few, if any, write a religious diary without 
being influenced by the thought that it may at 
some future time, come before the eyes of their 
fellow men — at least of the more intimate of their 



104 MEMOIR OF 

surviving friends. Under such an influence he be- 
lieved that it does not belong to human nature to 
lay open the inmost depths of the soul without 
reserve or concealment ; and that, even where in- 
firmities and sins are dwelt upon with the greatest 
apparent openness and self-condemning severity, 
it is apt to be in such a way as shall, after all, re- 
dound to the writer's praise as a very humble 
Christian. The only journal left by him is that 
of his Sunday School agency, and this is a naked 
statement of places visited, sermons preached, 
schools formed, subscriptions taken up, and the 
like ; with only two brief notices of his feelings, 
both of a self-condemning character. The histori- 
cal view of him being thus necessarily inadequate, 
the present chapter will be devoted to a review 
of his public life under the several heads which 
follow. 

Section I. 

Mr. Judson as a Preacher. 

We have seen that, in the beginning of his 
ministry, he wrote all his discourses which were 
designed for the pulpit. His own statement, con- 
tained in a letter to Mr. Barber under date of De- 
cember 26, 1829, is : "I have preached all my old 
sermons, and am now thrown entirely upon my 
own resources. I do not extemporize at all." In 
these words he has reference to his regular pulpit 



EVERTON JUDSON. 105 

discourses ; for, from the very beginning of his 
ministry, he was in the habit of delivering un- 
written evening lectures, and in this he greatly 
excelled. He also began to preach occasionally 
on the Sabbath without notes some time before he 
became absorbed in the work of conducting pro- 
tracted meetings. He said on one occasion to a 
lady of his congregation with whom he was 
boarding, " I do not feel able to prepare two ser- 
mons this week which will be worth my people's 
attention." She said, " Why not preach extempo- 
raneously ?" From that time he began to do so 
occasionally. He was not satisfied with his early 
efforts, but remarked that perhaps it would please 
the congregation at large as well as if he were to 
write all his discourses. 

We have seen how he was first led into the 
habit of preaching exclusively unwritten sermons. 
His labors in protracted meetings left him no lei- 
sure for writing. The exciting themes, moreover, 
too exclusively dwelt upon by him in those meet- 
ings were not congenial to the use of the pen. 
We have also seen why he returned again to his 
first practice of writing. He discovered that his 
extemporaneous sermons wanted substance, and 
did not interest or edify his people. To use his 
own expression, he found himself " running ashore" 
in regard to variety and richness of thought, and 
expressed his decided conviction that such a mode 
of preaching could not for any long time be em- 
ployed with profit by one who had charge of a 



106 MEMOIR OP 

congregation. We have further seen that, in his 
own judgment — a judgment sustained by the 
opinion of all intelligent men who had the oppor- 
tunity of hearing for themselves and witnessing 
the results — his people were, after he resumed the 
practice of writing, more interested and profited 
than before. 

And yet Mr. Judson possessed many desirable 
qualifications for an extemporaneous speaker. 
" He could," in the expressive language of one 
who was long aassociated with him in conducting 
protracted meetings, " turn himself round in the 
harness as quick as any man. With a mere skele- 
ton he could preach a powerful sermon. He had 
a peculiar faculty of welding on to a discourse al- 
most any thing, and making it appear as if it grew 
there." The faculty here described consists in the 
ability to perceive, in the facts of history and in 
the every day incidents of life, principles directly 
applicable to the discourse on hand. The princi- 
ples being in place, the incidents which serve as 
their envelope or casket, will, of course, be in place 
also, and will " appear as if they grew there." Yet 
ordinary minds, not having discerned the princi- 
ples in the facts, will wonder how the preacher 
could bring them in so naturally and pertinently. 
For one who is called to speak without much op- 
portunity of premeditation this is a most desirable 
faculty. 

It is not wonderful, then, that Mr. Judson should 
have been for a time greatly enamored of this 



EVERTON JUDSON. 107 

mode of preaching, and should have expressed his 
intention not to write many more sermons ; nor 
that his people should have been, at first, much 
pleased, and some of them should have boasted 
that " their minister did not want more than five 
minutes any time to prepare a sermon;" nor that 
the influence of his example, with that of other 
prominent men, should have made unwritten dis- 
courses for the time being a very popular mode 
of preaching in his region. 

But no talents for extemporaneous speaking can 
long sustain the preacher unless they be underlaid 
by a rich stratum of well digested thought, and 
this requires that he should be much in his study, 
devoting himself there to reading, meditation, and 
writing. The homely maxim of Franklin respect- 
ing the meal-tub applies in its full force to the 
reservoir of human thought. He who is always 
taking out of it without putting in, will soon come 
to the bottom, and then his discourses must be- 
come dull and uninteresting. By the excitement 
of awful and soul-stirring themes he may for a 
while sustain himself and keep the attention of his 
hearers. But this will be found in the end to be a 
hardening process. For, to use Mr. Judson's own 
similitude, in his article on the Range of Topics 
for the Pulpit, "the thunder-storm would have no 
terrors for one who had spent his entire life amid 
its roar." 



108 MEMOIR OF 

The experience of Mr. Judson throws some 
light on the long-contested question of the com- 
parative advantages of written and unwritten ser- 
mons. 

The author once heard the habit of reading ser- 
mons- condemned by one of the brightest ornaments 
of the American pulpit as " a lazy practice." This 
sentence of condemnation is capable of being un- 
derstood in two very different senses. 

If the speaker's meaning was that indolence is 
in general the cause why ministers write their 
discourses instead of delivering them in an un- 
written form, the charge is refuted by observation 
and experience. Aversion not merely to the ma- 
nual labor of writing, but, much more, to the se- 
vere and continuous thought which it requires is, 
with too many, the real cause which determines 
them to the method of preaching ex tempore. 
Others have a more honorable reason, as did the 
subject of this memoir, in the multiplicity of their 
engagements, and, along with this, the belief that 
this method will be, upon the whole, productive 
of the most good to their hearers. 

But if the speaker's meaning was that to pre- 
pare and deliver year after year unwritten dis- 
courses that shall be as rich in weighty thought 
and as full of instruction as if the same had been 
carefully written, is a difficult task, from the labor 
of which most preachers shrink through indolence, 
then it may be replied that such a preparation of 
unwritten discourses is indeed a very difficult task 



EVERTON JUDSON. 109 

— so difficult that, with the great body of preach- 
ers, the ability to execute it cannot be attained 
without much previous use of the pen, nor, indeed, 
sustained in its perfection without the constant 
aid of the same instrument. If there be any who 
can form and maintain an accurate, compact, and 
vigorous style — the true style of the pulpit orator 
not less than of the statesman — they are so few 
that we need here make no account of them. 
Such were not Demosthenes and Cicero among 
the ancient orators. Such, we have lamentable 
evidence, is not the great body of preachers at 
the present day who wholly discard the use of the 
pen. 

The man who adopts exclusively the extempo- 
raneous method of preaching is in danger, as all 
admit, of falling into a loose and rambling style, 
which must soon become exceedingly wearisome 
to any congregation. Or, if his ideas of order will 
not allow this, then he will naturally fall into the 
habit of laying out his discourse artificially, with 
a multitude of divisions of the first, second and 
third order, partly as a help to the memory, and 
partly in order that, if, at any time, his mind will 
not work freely on one division or subdivision, he 
may have ready at hand a convenient retreat in 
the next following. The effect of this habit, when 
long continued, will be to convert his sermons into 
rattling skeletons, plentifully supplied with wired 
joints, but destitute alike of flesh and blood, and 
of a living animating spirit. 
10 



110 MEMOIR OF 

He will, moreover, be peculiarly exposed to 
another error, that of dwelling too exclusively 
upon awful and soul-stirring themes, because the 
excitement which these produce operates for the 
time being as a support to both the speaker and 
the hearers. This error the subject of the present 
memoir did not escape. Of his extemporaneous 
sermons one testifies that they "were altogether 
different from those he had been in the habit of 
preaching. They were always on exciting topics, 
and excited others." Another says, " His unwrit- 
ten sermons were inferior in character, and gener- 
ally on exciting topics. His manner was vehe- 
ment. He afterwards told me he was satisfied 
that he could not embody in a sermon that truth 
which he wanted, unless he wrote it out. He was 
fully satisfied that in returning to writing he had 
done right." 

Mr. Judson's experience in regard to embody- 
ing truth in a discourse by the help of the pen 
was not peculiar. Few preachers can make their 
unwritten discourses, delivered year after year to 
the same congregation, rich in thought and in- 
struction, unless they interchange them with those 
that are carefully written out, whether such written 
discourses be read, or pronounced memoriter, or 
simply used as a means of accumulating and ar- 
ranging thought, and then left in the study, with- 
out being committed to memory. 

On this point the experience of the prince of 
Roman orators (speaking in the name of Crassus) 



EVERTON JUDSON. Ill 

is as high in authority as the argument into which 
he has woven it is conclusive in reasoning. " The 
chief thing," he writes, u which (to speak the truth) 
we practice very little (for it is a work of great 
labor, which most of us shun) is to write as much 
as possible. The pen is the best and most excel- 
lent former and master of oratory : and for a good 
reason : for if what is spoken off hand and at ran- 
dom is easily surpassed by what is meditated and 
thought upon, assuredly even this latter will be 
outdone by constant and careful writing. For all 
the topics of argument, whether they belong to 
art, or to a certain native talent and skill, will, 
provided only they exist in the subject upon which 
we write, appear and present themselves to us 
while we investigate and reflect with the whole 
power of our mind. And all the most perspicuous 
thoughts and words which belong to each class 
must of necessity come up and pass in order under 
the point of the pen." And he justly represents it 
as the prerogative of the man who devotes much 
time to writing that, even when he has occasion 
to speak without premeditation, his words will 
still bear a resemblance to written discourse. 

The above words of Cicero have reference to the 
speaker who practises writing in connection with 
unwritten discourse, and with a view to improve- 
ment in the latter art. To unwritten discourse 
undoubtedly belongs the highest and most effec- 
tive style of oratory — that which has most flexi- 
bility, most capacity of adaptation to circum- 



112 MEMOIR OF 

stances, and most power to move the human 
mind ; and it would be a difficult task for the gos- 
pel minister to show why he is not in duty bound 
to strive earnestly for the possession of so excel- 
lent a gift. The preacher w T ho gives himself up 
exclusively to the practice of reading his sermons, 
without any effort to excel in unwritten discourse, 
subjects himself, not less than the extemporaneous 
speaker, to some temptations that are not easily 
resisted. 

In the first place, he will be in danger, from the 
amount of writing demanded of him, of falling 
into negligent habits of composition, whereby the 
main end of writing will be in a great degree frus- 
trated. 

Then, again ; he will be peculiarly liable to the 
evil of sliding, insensibly to himself, from the style 
of personal address into that of essay. Especially, 
if he be a man trained to habits of analysis and 
generalization, will he be in danger of falling into 
an abstract and complex style, which, though it 
may be very majestic and ornate, and, to thor- 
oughly educated minds very attractive, will be but 
poorly adapted to edify the mass of his hearers, 
and, so far as some of them are concerned, might 
almost as well be in an unknown tongue. Here 
it should be noticed how written and unwritten 
discourse act and react upon each other in a most 
beneficial way. The former gives accuracy, com- 
pactness, and fulness of thought, the latter sim- 
plicity of style, and directness of address. 



EVERTON JUDSON, 113 

It is well known, moreover, that many of the 
most striking and effective thoughts of a discourse 
spring up in the progress of its delivery from the 
inspiration of the moment. All these are lost to 
him who can utter nothing but what he has first 
set down on paper. And, lastly, there are many 
occasions upon which the preacher is called upon 
to speak without the possibility of much previous 
preparation. Who will say that he ought not to 
train himself, at whatever expense, to the habit of 
speaking well on such occasions ? But to him 
who is exclusively confined to his notes this is im- 
possible. 

The conclusion at which we seem to arrive is 
that the preacher who would excel in the pulpit 
ought to interchange with each other, more or 
less, the forms of written and unwritten discourse. 

In extemporaneous address Mr. Judson always 
excelled, although he found, as we have seen, that 
exclusive adherence to it was very unprofitable to 
himself and his people. There can be no doubt 
that the abundant use of the form of unwritten 
discourse contributed its share to that simplicity 
and transparency of style which marked his writ- 
ten sermons. Yet this was due also, in great mea- 
sure, to the native character of his mind. It was 
a mind formed not so much for subtle distinctions 
as for broad and comprehensive views of things — 
a mind that dealt in synthesis much more than in 
analysis. He was no metaphysician. Indeed it 
10* 



114 MEMOIR OF 

may be said that he had as little to do with meta- 
physics as with Hebrew. What is called " meta- 
physical preaching" was his abhorrence. He never 
employed it himself, and was unwilling that others 
should employ it. Being associated once with a 
brother minister in drawing up the narrative of 
the state of religion within the bounds of his 
Synod, his companion, who, as chairman of the 
committee, had drafted the narrative, came, in 
reading the document before the committee, to the 
word " subjective" He immediately stopped him 
and exclaimed, " Do, brother, strike out that word 
< subjective? I hate to hear it. It is not fit to be 
used any where but in the theological chamber. 
The people do not understand it." The distinc- 
tions which he made were such as are obvious to 
the mass of mankind, and they were set forth in 
clear and intelligible terms. He could, therefore, 
be understood by all his hearers. His preaching 
was of a plain and practical character, not ornate, 
abounding in solid rather than brilliant thoughts. 
He used (at least in his written discourses) no 
superfluous repetitions, but advanced steadily to- 
wards the point to be proved or illustrated. 

Mr. Judson's temperament was ardent, and his 
conceptions of things were strong and lively. 
Hence another quality of his style was its animat- 
ed graphic character. It was that kind of style 
which conveys to the mind a lively picture of the 
object. In his powers of description he greatly 



EVERTON JUDSON. 115 

excelled. He would, for example, set forth a hyp- 
ocrite before his audience so that they could, as 
it were, see him moving before them. It was with 
him a frequent practice to illustrate a single idea 
by exhibiting it in different aspects. 

His power of sarcasm was not less remarkable 
than that of description. When he chose he could 
assail vice with a merciless torrent of satire. To 
this he was in his early ministrations too much 
addicted. In later years he had less of it : for he 
had discovered that the satirist's lash is, as an or- 
dinary means of reformation, powerless, irritating 
wicked men without subduing them. His strokes 
of sarcasm were now not only more infrequent, 
but also of a milder and more subdued character. 
One of their most common objects was the slan- 
derer and mischief-maker, a personage for which 
he entertained a profound abhorrence, and which 
he did not fail to exhibit before his people in its 
true colors. Thus, in a sermon from 1 Peter ii. 23, 
on " the duty of Christians when injured by others" 
he says : " Better bear your griefs alone than get 
up a circle of gossip, which will banish the spirit 
of Christ from the bosoms of all who partake of 
it. There is too much tinder in the bosom of the 
best Christian to render it quite safe to blow up a 
fire there. Some people seem to amuse themselves 
by seeing how many and how violent explosions 
they can make: it affords as much pastime as 
burning gunpowder does to boys; but it gives the 
heart-ache to all sober lookers-on : it hinders the 



116 MEMOIR OF 

progress of the gospel, the prosperity of Zion, and 
the conversion of men." 

And, urging to reconciliation, he says : " But in 
a majority of instances you will find perfect recon- 
ciliation quite easy. In more than half the cases 
it will appear, upon kind inquiry, that you have 
mistaken the real nature of the abuse : it is not as 
bad as you supposed : there was no [bad] motive 
in the bosom : the exaggeration is the work of 
some one of that numerous army of news-carriers 
and gossip-mongers who seem to think they have 
entrusted to them a monopoly of the business of 
manufacturing quarrels, and who are as diligent 
as if they expected a large per centage on all the 
neighborhood broils and church-difficulties they 
can get up." 

He had, as already hinted, a rare talent of wea- 
ving into his sermons, lectures, and Bible-class ex- 
ercises the information which he had obtained in 
the course of his reading, and that in the most 
natural and easy way, so that the results of his 
reading always appeared in his pulpit discourses. 
It was also his habit to draw illustrations from 
passing events, as the death of a President, the 
burning of a steam-boat, and the like. 

The arrangement and division of his sermons 
agreed with the general character of his mind. 
For subtleties and complications he had no relish, 
and none of these appear in the written discourses 



EVERTON JUDSON. 117 

which he has left. They are, like his plans of ac- 
tion, marked in general by great simplicity. In 
very many of them, especially those of an earlier 
date, a few co-ordinate heads complete the divi- 
sion. In others, his thoughts under the primary 
divisions are arranged in subordinate heads. 
Rarely indeed, and only on themes of a peculiar 
character, does he proceed to divisions of the third 
order. He was not very careful to observe strict 
unity of form, nor a nice logical arrangement of 
topics : neither did he always express his main 
propositions in the shortest and most exact form. 
Nevertheless he was remarkably successful in 
bringing his thoughts before his people in an in- 
telligible and interesting shape. The best possi- 
ble proof of this exists in the fact that the mem- 
bers of his congregation, old and young, listened 
to him year after year with increasing interest and 
profit. 

In exegesis, in the proper sense of the term, he 
never excelled. This is to be attributed to the de- 
ficiency of his education in respect to the lan- 
guages. He once delivered a course of expository 
sermons, with which he was very much dissatis- 
fied, and contracted a strong antipathy to that 
method of preaching. 

Of the variety of topics which he sought to in- 
troduce in his later written discourses mention has 
already been made. His views on this point are 
expressed at large in an article in the Biblical Re* 



118 MEMOIR OF 

pository for the year 1847, entitled " Range of 
Topics for the Pulpit." From this article, to which 
reference was made in a preceding chapter, a few 
extracts will now be given. 

" The range of topics which are considered as 
legitimate themes for pulpit discussion, as this is 
extended or contracted, more than any single con- 
sideration, must ever affect the results of this spe- 
cies of intellectual labor. There are boundaries, 
even in morals, which the pulpit may not cross ; 
but we know of nothing better fitted to destroy its 
influence, than the confining of all its efforts to a 
few common themes. No matter how practical 
these maybe, no matter how important, no matter 
how scriptural. It is said that Paul was the most 
successful preacher, and the most perfect model 
with which God has favored his Church ; and yet, 
at Ephesus, it was the burden of all his labors to 
unfold the way of salvation, testifying both to the 
Jews, and also to the Greeks, repentance towards 
God, and faith towards our Lord Jesus Christ: 
while at Corinth he determined to know nothing 
save Jesus Christ and him crucified; a theme, to 
say the least, quite kindred to that which engaged 
his attention at Ephesus. 

Two things should be taken into the account, 
before any preacher of the gospel feels bound to 
restrict himself to exact conformity to this example 
of Paul. 

1. Does the preacher expect as short a resi- 
dence in his field of labor, as Paul contemplated 
either at Corinth or at Ephesus ? 



EVERTON JUDSON. 119 

2. Are the people to whom he preaches as igno- 
rant of the vital points of true christian faith, as 
were those whom Paul addressed ? With us the 
truths of the Gospel are instilled in early child- 
hood. The labors of the pulpit, the instructions 
of the Sabbath school, the expositions of the Bible 
class, united to the wide diffusion of religious truth 
from the press, impart a knowledge of the gospel, 
which renders the whole circle of religious duties 
in a high degree familiar to even the youth in our 
congregations. To preach habitually the same 
truths which Paul preached, in the cases referred 
to, is the surest method of putting the conscience 
to sleep. The thunder-storm would have no ter- 
rors for one who had spent his entire life amid its 
roar; the tempest that blanches the cheek of the 
raw recruit, is music to the old weather-beaten tar. 
The peasant who cultivates the rugged sides of 
Vesuvius, so near to the burning crater as never to 
be beyond the glare of its lurid light, is unmoved 
by the deep rumbling occasioned by its hidden 
fires, while the stranger is terrified at every flash. 
So faith and repentance, Christ and him crucified, 
may fall upon the sinner's ear, till, like the dull 
monotony of a waterfall, the sound does more to 
hush him to sleep than to arouse his fears. It is 
sometimes said that every sermon should have 
enough of gospel truth to lead a sinner to Christ, 
should he never listen again to a discourse from 
the pulpit. This might do for a preacher who, 
like Whitefield, was to be ever on the wing. But 



120 MEMOIR OF 

let any pastor attempt this course, and he will 
soon either preach his hearers to sleep or out of 
church. It is our solemn conviction, that the fre- 
quency with which the pastoral relation has been 
dissolved, for the last quarter of a century, may be 
attributed, more than to any other cause, to the 
limited range of topics introduced for discussion 
in the pulpit. It has been the era of revivals, and 
the churches must have ' revival sermons.' " — Bib. 
Repository for 1847, pp. 722-3. 

From the closing sentence of the above extract, 
as well as from the similitudes employed in it, it 
is evident that Mr. Judson had in view that exci- 
ting and impassioned style of preaching " faith and 
repentance, Christ and him crucified " which has 
been called " revival preaching." This he had 
himself employed in his itinerating labors, and he 
seems to have continued the use of it among his 
own people, until he became aware of its harden- 
ing and soporiferous influence. Thus much we 
may infer from his acknowledgment to a friend 
which has already been given. " I once thought 
that by dwelling on exciting topics, when my 
heart was warm, I could keep up the attention of 
my people: but I found, by experience, that their 
attention was not sustained." 

Bat, while endeavoring to expose the above 
error, he uses language which is unguarded, and 
might be misapprehended as teaching dangerous 
doctrine of another kind. To hear one say that 
" faith and repentance, Christ and him crucified, 



EVERTON JUDSON. 121 

may fall upon the sinner's ear, till, like the dull 
monotony of a waterfall, the sound does more to 
hush him to sleep than to arouse his fears," sounds 
harsh ; and, if uttered in some quarters, would lead 
to the suspicion that the author wished to have 
the doctrine of " Christ and him crucified " dis- 
placed by other and more popular themes. Un- 
doubtedly the doctrine of the cross is the centre — 
the animating principle — of all the topics which 
properly come within the range of the pulpit ; for 
the pulpit was established by our Lord for the ex- 
press purpose of setting forth to the world himself 
and his salvation. Every christian duty derives 
from faith in a crucified Savior all its vitality, and 
is to be inculcated as a fruit of such faith. This 
was the uniform practice of the Apostles, in 
which, it may be added, they were faithfully imi- 
tated by the subject of this memoir. Every chris- 
tian virtue they represented as a good stream flow- 
ing from the good fountain of faith in Christ cruci- 
fied. " Be ye kind one to another, tender-hearted, 
forgiving one another, even as God for Christ's 
sake hath forgiven you." "Walk in love, as Christ 
also hath loved us, and given himself for us." " For- 
nication, and all uncleanness and covetousness, 
let it not be once named among you, as becometh 
saints." " Beloved, now are we the sons of God ; 
and it doth not yet appear what we shall be : but 
we know that when he shall appear we shall be 
like him ; for we shall see him as he is. And every 
man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself 
11 



122 MEMOIR OF 

even as he is pure." Whoever attempts to incul- 
cate a system of social duties that has not for its 
foundation the principle of faith in Christ, is guilty 
of the same folly as the man who should plow 
and sow the snows of winter, and expect to reap 
a harvest matured by the light of the moon. 

But while all this is true and important to be 
remembered by every christian preacher, it is 
equally true, that to be always dwelling formally 
on a few such cardinal doctrines as faith, repen- 
tance, the atonement, regeneration, and the final 
judgment, is both contrary to the example of the 
inspired writers (who are largely occupied with 
the manifold application of christian principles to 
the every-day duties of life) and hardening in its 
influence. And that this was the meaning of Mr. 
Judson in the above remarks is obvious, as well 
from his own example, as from the general tenor 
> of 1he article. Thus understood they contain a 
weighty truth, which all young preachers would 
;do well to ponder.* 

-* The author is not sure but that a brief historic note may be neces- 
.sary to set forth the true course of events to which Mr. Judson had 
reference in penning the above strictures. Such a note he ventures to 
append in the belief that it will best exhibit the error which he was 
combatting. 

From about the year 1832 it had been in Northern Ohio, as in many 
other regions, the era of protracted meetings, and, what was intimately 
connected with these, itinerant evangelism. These protracted meet- 
ings, in the beginning, while as yet they were regarded simply as 
means of bringing divine truth to bear upon men's consciences, and 
were undertaken in simple-hearted reliance upon God's grace, pro- 
duced, in many cases at least, a rich harvest of permanent good fruits. 
But (such is the downward tendency of every thing human) it so hap- 
pened that they soon came to be invested, in the eyes of the many, 



EVERTON JUDSON. 123 

In proceeding to inquire how " the preacher is 
to study, and how acquire that variety, which will 

with a certain superstitious charm, as if they possessed some specific 
efficacy for the conversion of the soul to God; and the people {practi- 
cally, at least, whatever may have been their theoretic views) learned 
to rely upon them, rather than upon the ordinary means of grace, for 
the advancement of Christ's kingdom. Thus they degenerated into a 
species of evangelic formalism, and became true opera operata — spiri- 
tual machinery that might be expected, when set in motion and skill- 
fully managed, to elaborate revivals of religion. The ministers into 
whose hands the chief management of them fell were led, almost of 
necessity, to restrict themselves to a few set themes, which Mr. Jud- 
son describes as " faith and repentance, Christ and him crucified," 
using the words in their narrow and restricted sense. This was espe- 
cially true of the itinerating evangelists, whose sojourn with particular 
churches was necessarily brief, and from whose labors great present 
results were expected. In truth, the problem proposed to them was 
how large a harvest could be reaped, and sheaved, and housed, in a 
given number of weeks ; and upon their success in this work depended 
their reputation as evangelists. In such circumstances it is not in hu- 
man nature that a man should employ those gentler influences which, 
precisely because they descend deepest into the moral character, are 
slow in their operation, and require time for the development of out- 
ward results. He will naturally throw himself, as did these evange- 
lists, rather upon those more exciting themes and measures from 
which immediate visible effects may be expected. 

The author most earnestly repudiates the sentiment that great and 
sudden effects may not be expected to accompany the true scriptural 
presentation of the gospel. But these, at least in evangelized commu- 
nities, where the elementary truths of the gospel are familiar to men's 
minds, will generally be found to be the final issue of previoics i7iflu- 
ences that have been silently penetrating deep into the inner man. 
When such sudden results become the sole thing aimed at, there the 
preaching of the gospel must degenerate into that peculiar exciting 
style which Mr. Judson calls " revival preaching" — a style which had 
been very popular in his region, and which, as we have seen, he had 
himself adopted. 

The true view of the gospel ministry is that, while the doctrine of 
Christ crucified must ever constitute its grand central theme, all the 
diversified topics which are discussed in the Holy Scriptures should be 
clustered around it in rich variety. This is the view which Mr. Jud- 
son, in the later years of his ministry, adopted, and so successfully car- 
ried out into practice. 



124 MEMOIR OF 

enlist attention, and secure the listening ear, as 
the best means of gaining the consent of the 
heart," he himself recommends, first of all, this 
varied application of christian principles. " In the 
first place," he says, " there may be a great variety 
in the use of those truths that are usually classed 
as experimental and practical. Much may be done 
in mere adaptation to existing circumstances." 
And, in illustrating this point, he draws a faithful 
portraiture of his own practice. 

" We might name the pastor of a Church, who 
has for a long series of years, made special efforts 
to adapt the truth to the circumstances, and press 
it upon the consciences of the families of his pa- 
rish, whenever they have been visited with severe 
affliction, and almost ever with the happiest suc- 
cess. It is believed that he has realized more ac- 
cessions to his Church, in connection with such 
instrumentalities, than from all other means. Let 
the pulpit seize upon every stirring incident, upon 
all distinguished blessings, upon every great ca- 
lamity, whether individual or public, upon what- 
ever in passing events, even if it be but an ordi- 
nary political election, enlists the feelings of his 
parish, and use it to illustrate and enforce divine 
truth, and man's obligation to God, and it will 
not be a vain attempt." — p. 724. 

Another field of topics for the pulpit he finds in 
unfolding the proofs of the Divine existence and 
attributes, especially as impressed upon the works 
of nature. " The pastor," he says, " who cannot 



EVERTON JUDSON. 125 

make the young and the thoughtful of his con- 
gregation hang upon his lips, and become intel- 
lectually charmed with the field on which God 
has impressed the great lineaments of his own 
character, has lived and studied with but half his 
duty before his mind. 

Let it not be said that all this is foreign to the 
suggestions of the inspired volume. The most 
beautiful and impressive illustrations of moral 
truth in the Bible, are derived from the physical 
creation. Whoever has read the parable of the 
sower, the story of Christ weeping over Jerusalem, 
the description of the descent of the Holy Ghost 
upon Christ at his baptism, Christ's conversation 
with the woman of Samaria, and a great variety 
of the most inimitable scenes in the prophecies of 
the Old Testament, cannot fail to have admired 
the appositeness and beauty of the illustrations 
there found, while he is impressed with the truth 
of the Psalmist's declaration, that the works of 
the Lord are great, sought out of all them that 
have pleasure therein. The intelligence of a con- 
gregation is by such a course not less enhanced 
than their moral improvement." — pp. 726-7. 

Another inviting field he finds in the depart- 
ment of " Evidences of Revelation." 

" Take, as an illustration of this remark, the 
instruction that may be communicated in connec- 
tion with the fulfilment of prophecy. Let us sup- 
pose that the preacher selects for his text, " Egypt 
shall be the basest of kingdoms :" or, " They shall 
11* 



126 MEMOIR OF 

destroy the walls of Tyrus, and break down her 
towers ; I will also scrape her dust from off her, 
and make her like the top of a rock ;" or that thril- 
ling passage respecting the doom of Idumea, 
which describes it as lying waste from generation 
to generation. With such themes, let him collect 
from the best authorities the history of the great- 
ness, the splendor, the commercial importance of 
these cities and countries, which the Lord hath 
cursed, while from authentic modern travelers, he 
gathers up the graphic pictures of their present 
ruins. Let the present and the past be placed in 
striking contrast, while due prominence is given 
to the causes that have been in operation to pro- 
duce the results. That congregation must be stu- 
pid indeed, that cannot be made to perceive the 
truth of prophecy, and feel the power and terrible- 
ness of God's arm in avenging himself against the 
sinner, in the discussion of such topics. While it 
puts into the hand of the preacher a moral lever 
of immense power, it may, at the same time, be 
made attractive, by the fund of information which 
it spreads before the eager eye of those anxious 
to improve their knowledge of the present and the 
past."— jo. 727. 

This last extract will be read by the friends of 
Mr. Judson with mournful interest. For it was in 
the attempt to present to his own congregation 
such a contrast between the present and the past 
condition of Egypt and Tyre — an attempt in 
which he overtasked his powers — that he sank un- 



EVERTON JUDSON. 127 

der the stroke of disease. The very last discourse 
written and preached by him, in pursuance of his 
course of sermons on the Evidences of Revelation, 
was from Ezekiel xxix. 15. " It shall be the basest 
of kingdoms, neither shall it exalt itself any more 
above the nations : for I will diminish them that 
they shall no more rule over the nations." 

Another course which he proposes, and which 
he also pursued in his series of discourses entitled 
" The History of Fanaticism," is the history of the 
various forms which error has, in different ages, 
assumed. " There is no form of error, be it ever so 
repulsive, that lures from the narrow path the fee- 
bler, or more dull, or more enthusiastic disciple of 
the nineteenth century, but has had its day, done 
its mischief, and fallen into a centennial sleep in 
some previous age. Every fashionable and every 
silly form of human folly has its place in the cycle. 
Nor is it without its points, rich in benevolence, 
and fruitful in the devisings of warm hearts and 
the promptings of christian love, that deserve the 
approbation, no less than the other, the reprehen- 
sion of the faithful of our day. 

Nor is there any more effective method of en- 
forcing important duties, or combatting pernicious 
errors, than by bringing their origin, their bearing, 
and their results, their whole history, from the dust 
of ages, and revealing it to the eye of those whom 
we wish to warn or instruct. Much of the fanati- 
cism, and many of the forms of error that sprang 
up at the time of the Protestant Reformation, in 



128 MEMOIR OF 

spite of the holy men who were the chief actors in 
that drama, were scarcely less like the errors and 
fanaticism of the present age, than the successive 
editions of a stereotyped book. They bear the 
same image and superscription. History under 
such circumstances becomes prophecy, and with 
this advantage, that the confirmation of the be- 
ginning by existing facts, conduces strongly to a 
confirmation of the end, so as to reveal the proba- 
ble termination of many things now in their high- 
est state of prosperity." — p. 728. 

Nothing more just and striking! and if some 
preachers at the present day, as well as scores of 
churches who give themselves up to their guidance, 
would learn from the history of the past, they 
might save themselves the pain and humiliation 
of unlearning their errors from bitter experience. 

But how does Mr. Judson meet the difficulty of 
the want of books to enable the preacher to deliver 
such courses of lectures as are here contemplated ? 
Let us see. 

" The objection may be felt by some, who are 
less favored than their brethren, that an incompe- 
tent salary deprives them of a library of such ex- 
tent and diversity, as would afford the requisite 
aid for a more extended range of topics for the 
pulpit. The common doctrine of political econo- 
my, that the demand regulates the supply, well 
applies in a case of this kind. There are few pa- 
rishes whose young men would not feel it a privi- 
lege, at the close of every such series of discourses 



EVERTON JUDSON. 129 

as has been contemplated in this article, to furnish 
the requisite means for securing a similar intellec- 
tual feast in future. Persons of very good com- 
mon sense sometimes wonder what use the pastor 
who only preaches " doctrinal discourses," or " re- 
vival sermons," can have for many books. The 
range of topics suggested in this article, thorough- 
ly and elaborately discussed from the pulpit, would 
solve the question for such preachers, and lead the 
congregation to supply that of which they might 
not otherwise see the necessity." — pp. 729-30. 

If Mr. Judson's practice in respect to diversity 
of topics is to be warmly commended, the same 
praise cannot be awarded to his habit of compos- 
ing sermons, which was somewhat peculiar. He 
usually commenced the business of writing his 
sermon for the Sabbath — for which, however, at 
least in many cases, he had been previously col- 
lecting the materials — on Saturday morning, and 
wrote till noon. The afternoon of Saturday he 
spent out of his study, resuming and continuing 
his work in the evening. On Sabbath morning 
he went to his study at 5 o'clock, and wrote till 
ten, that is, till it was time to leave for the sanc- 
tuary, and took his discourse along, with the ink 
hardly dry. This he did not from procrastination, 
but from system. In a conversation which the 
author once had with him respecting this practice 
he defended it on the ground that he wished to 
have the thoughts of his sermon fresh and glowing 



130 MEMOIR OF 

in his mind ; which he found to be an impossible 
thing for him if any considerable interval was al- 
lowed to elapse between its composition and its 
delivery. He further argued that he needed the 
stimulus of the position in which the Sabbath 
morning placed him ; that, with his congregation 
just coming together, and, as it were, before his 
eye, he could write with more force, animation, 
and directness, than in any other circumstances. 

The reality of this advantage to a man of Mr. 
Judson's character and temperament needs not be 
denied. But it was purchased at too heavy an 
expense. One obvious consequence of this method 
of writing was that he left few sermons that can 
be called finished. The greater number of them 
are first drafts, rich in thought and abounding in 
striking illustrations, but unrevised and imperfect. 
This fact was probably one of the considerations 
that influenced him in his dying injunction that 
none of his discourses should be published. 

But a more serious evil was the injury which 
his constitution received from this weekly Sabbath 
morning effort, followed, as it was necessary that 
it should be, by the arduous services of the day. 
To write every Sabbath morning from five till ten 
under the strain of constant excitement, then de- 
liver two discourses and one extemporaneous lec- 
ture, and conduct a Bible class in the evening (on 
which latter exercise he laid out, as we have seen, 
his full strength) was more than his constitution 
could bear, and was one cause of hastening that 



EVERTON JUDSON. 131 

catastrophe which put a sudden and final end to 
his labors in Christ's vineyard. Of this he him- 
self was fully sensible when it was too late to re- 
pair the mischief. 

In regard to the length of his discourses it was 
a maxim with Mr. Judson never to fatigue his 
audience, and to this he attached great importance. 
His written sermons generally occupied less than 
forty-five minutes in the delivery. 

From what has already been said the reader 
will understand that Mr. Judson had no relish for 
the abstruse and controverted points of systematic 
theology. He did not willingly discuss them in 
the Ministers' Meeting, and he never introduced 
them into his pulpit. In his general views he 
agreed with the system taught in the Seminary at 
which he received his theological education. The 
doctrine of the predominant volition or governing 
purpose, as giving character to action, he adopted 
very heartily and fully. The power of this simple 
purpose he felt in his own soul with great strength 
and definiteness. Habitually to do all for Christ — 
this was his idea of what constitutes true christian 
character. That this character is, though free, not 
self-originated, but produced and maintained in 
the soul by the Spirit of God, it is hardly neces- 
sary to say that he most firmly believed and 
taught throughout his entire ministry. 



132 MEMOIR OF 

Section II. 
Mr. Judson as a Pastor. 

From the preceding historical sketch of Mr. 
Judson's labors in Milan, it is manifest that he ex- 
celled in the discharge of pastoral duties. The 
steady growth and prosperity of his Church du- 
ring the entire period of his ministry must be as- 
cribed to the blessing of God upon his abundant 
and wisely directed labors ; and no one who knew 
him will doubt that among these, the* pastoral 
held the foremost place. It is true that he was 
favored by circumstances. His congregation was 
located in a flourishing and enterprising commu- 
nity, steadily increasing in population and wealth. 
But secular and spiritual prosperity do not always 
go hand in hand ; and, where they do, we may 
lawfully assume that it is through God's blessing 
bestowed upon the appropriate instrumentalities. 
If, now, we examine Mr. Judson's character as a 
pastor, we shall find in this one of the principal 
causes of the continuous prosperity of his Church. 

In the first place, he was a pastor whose whole 
soul was in his work. He took the oversight of 
the Lord's flock not by constraint, but willingly ; 
not for filthy lucre, but of a ready mind." This 
love for the work of the ministry, though it needs, 
indeed, to be supported and guided by various 
good moral and intellectual qualifications, is, after 



EVERTON JUDSON. 133 

all, the prime preparation for usefulness, and one 
without which all other qualifications are void. 
No work is ever done in the best manner unless 
the heart of the doer is in it. It was Mr. Judson's 
love for his office that made him so thorough in 
the discharge of its duties ; and this love, having 
its seat deep down in the centre of his soul, con- 
strained him, throughout the entire period of his 
ministry, to do whatever his hand found to do 
with his might. If he was ever temporarily drawn 
aside from the appropriate work of a pastor, as in 
superintending the erection of the Huron Institute 
and his own house of worship, it was because 
these enterprises were, in his view, identified with 
the cause of Christ. The distracting influence of 
these two interruptions, particularly the latter, he 
himself felt and acknowledged ; and (if we except 
his brief agency for the Western Reserve College) 
he never afterwards allowed himself to be drawn 
aside from his proper ministerial duties. During 
the two last years of his ministry, in particular, 
his absorption in these duties became more entire, 
and led him, as we have seen, to efforts which 
were beyond his strength. 

Intimately connected with this whole-souled 
devotion to his proper spiritual work was his 
watchful care of the flock committed to him. He 
was a bishop in the true primitive sense of the 
word — an overseer of the souls entrusted to his 
care. He made it his business to be acquainted 
12 



134 MEMOIR OF 

with every member of his congregation, and his 
acquaintance extended to the temporal as well as 
the spiritual condition of his people, for he rightly 
judged that, in the plan of man's probation, God 
has so connected the temporal with the spiritual, 
that a thorough knowledge of the latter implies a 
knowledge of the former also. He was not the 
man to deliver the same set exhortation to persons 
of all classes and conditions, as if religion had 
nothing to do with man's outward circumstances ; 
but, being fully persuaded that it is through these 
that God tries and disciplines the spirit, he sought 
through the outward dealings of God's providence 
to approach the inner man. This gave to the ex- 
ternal history of each member of his congregation 
a religious importance, in his view, and he watched 
it with an eagle-eyed scrutiny, ever anxious to 
learn what lessons of spiritual profit he might draw 
from it. The qualification which a living preacher 
has stated as necessary for the pastor — " the pastor 
must know every body and every thing" — was 
possessed by Mr. Judson in an eminent degree ; 
but he never gained or used it in such a way as to 
be accused of being " a busy body in other men's 
matters." Regard for the spiritual good of his 
people regulated his mode both of acquiring and 
of using it. Being very much among his people, 
it was not difficult for a man of his discernment to 
learn, in an indirect way, what did not come to 
light in the course of confiding pastoral intercourse. 
Often, as the writer of this memoir was riding by 



EVERTON JUDSON. 135 

his side along the streets of Milan, would he, by a 
few graphic strokes, give the history and character 
of the different converts whom he met. He dwelt 
on the various ways in which they had been 
brought into the fold of Christ in such a manner 
as to show that he had been a keen observer of 
their history. 

He watched the countenances of the members 
of his congregation on the Sabbath, and was quick 
to discern the beginning of religious interest in 
any breast. Cases of seriousness could not escape 
his notice. Upon going home from preaching he 
often remarked, " I must call upon such a person : 
I saw a tear in his eye." A good impression made 
in public he felt it his duty to follow up in private. 
Here lay the secret of much of his success. His 
watchfulness in regard to his Church was equally 
remarkable. " Suppose," says one, " that a mem- 
ber of the Church had been absent on the Sabbath. 
He would come into my store on Monday morn- 
ing and ask, ' How is Mr. 's family ? Have 

you heard that any one there is sick ? I noticed 

yesterday that was absent' Where one had 

been missing he would generally make it conve- 
nient to call soon upon the family." 

The following incident may serve to illustrate 
his habit in respect to absentees from his congre- 
gation. One of his parishioners, well known for 
his regular attendance upon the sanctuary, was 
led, on a certain Sabbath, by particular circum- 
stances, to the house of an adjoining parish which 



186 MEMOIR OF 

was nearer to him than his own Church. One of 
the elders playfully remarked to him, " Well, Mr. 

D , I am glad that for once you have found 

your true place." " There is no hope for you," he 
immediately replied, " for to-morrow morning Mr. 
Judson will ride over to your place, and call across 

the street to Dr. B , to know if I am sick. 

Or he will make it convenient to call on the way 
at my house to inquire about my health." The 
latter circumstance took place the next morning, 
to the no small amusement of all the parties. 

When persons who were not in the habit of at- 
tending upon religious services appeared in his 
Church, he took great pains to secure their confi- 
dence and good will. This he effected in the ear- 
lier part of his ministry by interviews brought 
about in an indirect manner. Afterwards he 
changed his plan in this respect, and kindly in- 
vited them to call upon him. He was not in the 
habit, however, in these preliminary interviews, of 
introducing the subject of personal religion, unless 
he discerned some tenderness. On this point he 
was very strenuous. 

On Monday forenoon, when he felt himself una- 
ble to occupy his time in his study with profit, he 
made the round of the shops and warehouses, 
visiting the male part of his congregation at their 
places of business. These visits were generally 
short, and of rather a social character. The plea- 
sant impression which he made, as he passed along 
from place to place with his frank open counte- 



EVERTON JUDSON. 137 

nance and friendly salutations, one has well ex- 
pressed, by saying that " he left a light streak be- 
hind him." The afternoons of all the days of the 
week which were not otherwise occupied he devo- 
ted to visiting his congregation. In his ordinary 
rounds of parochial visitation he did not adhere to 
a strict plan previously laid down, but was di- 
rected by circumstances as they arose. Upon oc- 
casions of special interest he visited in particular 
neighborhoods all the families of his congregation 
in connection with his deacons. The sick he 
made it a point to visit with great faithfulness and 
assiduity, always requesting the physicians to in- 
form him of cases of sickness as they occurred. 
Persons sick for long periods of time he visited 
regularly. The afflicted he visited with the ut- 
most care and solicitude. The high end which he 
proposed to himself in these visitations will be 
considered in another place. 

In respect to the amount of time which Mr, 
Judson devoted to parochial visitations, he is not 
proposed as an example to all pastors. Undoubt- 
edly many would find themselves unable to be so 
much of their time out of their studies without 
abridging their highest usefulness. And here Mr. 
Judson had a very liberal spirit. He knew where 
his own strength lay, but did not wish to propose 
his particular method for universal adoption. The 
following extract from his article on the " Range 
of Topics for the Pulpit," shows that he did not 
wish to have any preacher neglect thorough pre- 
12* 



138 MEMOIR OP 

paration for the pulpit in order to satisfy the call 
for " more visiting." 

" That a style of pulpit discourses thus diversi- 
fied, will not augment the duties of the ministry, 
and call for much of that study which is a weari- 
ness to the flesh, is not claimed. Nor is it a valid 
objection to such an appropriation of the time of 
the pastor, that the parish is clamorous for more 
pastoral labor. However urgent may be the plea 
for ' more visiting,' there are few congregations that 
would not regard better and more varied preaching 
as an excellent substitute for pastoral visits. The 
weeks would be shortened by the anxiety for the 
intellectual feasts of the Sabbath, and the inter- 
vals between each successive visit would be less 
carefully noted. It is not so much the superior 
value of the fireside instructions, as the wish to 
cultivate an affectionate interest in the pastor, that 
calls for an increased frequency in his visits. 
When this affectionate interest is secured by the 
greater excellence and happier variety of his pul- 
pit efforts, the same end is gained, and in a way 
that is both more acceptable, and more perma- 
nent."— Bib. Repository for 1847, p. 729. 

In a charge to a newly ordained pastor, written 
several years before, in 1840, he had insisted upon 
the same thing. " If you would be a workman, 
and a workman too that needeth not to be asham- 
ed, rightly dividing the word of truth, you must 
spend much time in your study. Here should be 
your first and greatest effort, the place where your 



EVERTON JUDSON. 139 

energies are concentrated. Your congregation, 
unless they are unlike all other congregations, will 
say much to you about visiting. You will hear a 
thousand complaints about your not visiting 
enough, where you will hear one about not study- 
ing as much as you should. But remember it is a 
somewhat delicate matter for your parishioners to 
urge you to study. Their polite regard for you 
will prevent it. But though they may say little, 
they will think much. And they will have a way 
of showing what they think, more effectual than 
kind words even, by leaving these seats empty. 
You cannot chain a congregation in regular and 
interested attendance upon the duties of the house 
of God for a series of years, without introducing 
into your sermons the fruits of much and severe 
investigation." 

One happy result of Mr. Judson's intimate ac- 
quaintance with his parish was his ability to dis- 
cern and forestall rising evils. He saw far ahead, 
and often acted with reference to a point that 
other people did not see. When the elements of 
an explosion were at work he occupied himself in 
a quiet way to quench them, and often employed, 
on such occasions, the members of his Church 
whom he knew to be most favorably situated for 
the work, suggeting to them the best means of ac- 
complishing it. So also he forestalled rising er- 
rors, before they had gained a firm hold, by 
preaching the truths best adapted to dissipate 
them. 



140 MEMOIR OF 

Another of Mr. Judson's qualifications for the 
pastoral office was a sound judgment united with 
fertility of invention. That he never erred in 
judgment cannot be affirmed, for he was an impul- 
sive man, and subject, moreover, to great inequali- 
ties of spirits. From both these causes, as well as 
from his unnecessary bluntness and sarcastic se- 
verity, he was sometimes led into unwise mea- 
sures, and said and did things which had an un- 
happy influence. But, notwithstanding these 
drawbacks, he possessed a judgment of a very 
superior character. On all practical matters his 
views were remarkably clear and comprehensive. 
His fertility of invention, in devising ways and 
means for the accomplishment of any enterprise, 
was best understood by those whose acquaintance 
with him and the field of his labors was most in- 
timate. When any thing needed to be done he 
had a way for doing it ; and his plans were in 
general marked by simplicity and feasibility, and, 
for this very reason, they commended themselves 
to the common sense of his people, and were 
readily adopted by them. 

In the fourth volume of the New Englander is 
an article from his pen, on " the Evangelization of 
the West," in which he considers the various ob- 
stacles that must be encountered by the christian 
ministry in the West, and how they are to be 
overcome. The article is throughout fraught with 
good sense and practical wisdom, and is itself a 
sufficient proof that its author was a man of clear 
views and sound judgment. 



EVERTON JUDSON. 141 

Nearly related to the above qualification — rather 
a branch of it — was his tact in approaching men 
of all classes and conditions. Some, who knew 
him only at a distance, may think this view of his 
character incorrect. Instances are certainly known 
of his addressing strangers, upon his first introduc- 
tion to them, in a very abrupt way, by no means 
adapted to conciliate their good will. In the heat 
of ecclesiastical debate also, as well as in discus- 
sions with his best friends, he sometimes said un- 
necessarily severe things. It need not be denied 
that this trait was a detriment to his influence as a 
pastor. 

Yet it may be confidently affirmed, that few 
men ever understood more perfectly the deep 
springs of human action, or were able to operate 
upon them more skilfully or more successfully. 
And, in his pastoral intercourse with his people, 
having a deep and abiding sense of his responsi- 
bility for the souls committed to his care, he laid 
himself out, more perhaps than in any other situa- 
tion, to win men's confidence, that he might thus 
guide them to Christ. It is certain that in the 
later years of his ministry there was a peculiar 
mellowness and tenderness in his manner of ap- 
proaching men on the subject of their spiritual 
welfare, which, did not appear in the free inter- 
course of society, and which, combined as it was 
with a nice discernment of the most accessible 
points, opened to him the door of many a heart 
which, if approached in an unskilful way, would 



142 MEMOIR OF 

have remained fast barred against him. He had 
no set formula for approaching men, but varied 
his manner of address according to circumstances, 
always making it his first effort to gain their confi- 
dence and good will. When any had become 
somewhat interested in the subject of personal re- 
ligion, he anxiously watched their progress, and 
made from time to time suggestions appropriate 
to the stage of inquiry which they had reached. 
This was highly characteristic of his method in 
the latter period of his ministry. He did not be- 
lieve in attempting to force a mind at once through 
an entire process of inquiry and reasoning; but 
rather, in imitation of the skilful husbandman, 
sought to aid and cherish it in the development of 
its own inward powers. When, through the di- 
vine blessing upon his labors, any one had been 
brought to the knowledge and love of the truth, 
he could give the history of the several stages of 
his progress, and tell what suggestions he had 
made at each successive step, and why he had 
made them. 

If any were indifferent to the subject of religion, 
he approached them through their temporal inter- 
ests. Suppose, for example, that there was a 
family within the bounds of his parish that did 
not attend religious worship on the Sabbath. If 
he had noticed that the lady of the house had 
shrubbery or flowers about her door — a thing for 
which he had himself an exquisite relish — he made 
her taste here a point of contact. When he had 



EVERTON JUDSON, 143 

thus gained her interest and good will he pro- 
ceeded to seek her spiritual good. In the same 
way he drew into his congregation men of a skep- 
tical turn of mind, always making some worldly 
interest a door of entrance to their acquaintance 
and confidence. " He conversed," says a lady of 
his congregation, whose husband was brought to 
Christ through the divine blessing upon his labors, 
" on whatever matter my husband was engaged in. 
He could interest himself in every thing that con- 
cerned his affairs — even in a hill of potatoes." 

The interest with which he followed the uncon- 
verted members of his congregation, when he had 
thus gained access to their hearts, strikingly ap- 
pears in the following remarks, made to an inti- 
mate friend, soon after the death of one for whom 
he had a very high personal esteem. " There has 
no death occurred in my congregation for years 
which has been to me the occasion of so much 
anxiety and uneasiness. I have followed that man 
since I came here, and have thought that I ob- 
served a gradual softening of his feelings. Few 
in my Church know of what help he has been to 
me. With his influence I was able to carry out 
many measures, and that influence was always 
cheerfully given. I would have given the world 
to know that man's exercises in the last moments 
of his life. It was hard for me to become recon- 
ciled to the idea of his dying without giving evi- 
dence of a change of mind." 

Mr. Judson's habit of approaching irreligious 



144 MEMOIR OF 

men through their worldly occupations and inter- 
ests was probably the ground why some said that 
he was a man of much policy. His principle he 
may sometimes have carried to excess, but it was 
nevertheless a sound principle. What shall forbid 
the Christian, who has occasion to ride by the side 
of a profane stage-driver, instead of immediately 
uttering an abrupt reproof, first to prepare the way 
for it by manifesting an interest every way lawful 
and proper in his business and his horses? If 
this is policy, it is certainly not " carnal policy." 
Nevertheless the cases are few, and only consti- 
tute the exceptions, in which a minister may not, 
in private intercourse, especially among the people 
of his own charge, introduce the subject of per- 
sonal religion in a direct way. He is appointed 
by his Master to be men's spiritual guide, and 
even the wicked expect him, in his intercourse 
with them, to act in his proper character; and 
will, as an ordinary rule, be prepared to receive 
from him appeals to their consciences, when made 
with tenderness, and with a due regard to out- 
ward circumstances. In this matter " wisdom is 
profitable to direct ; and " there are diversities of 
gifts." 

In one respect Mr. Judson himself became satis- 
fied that, in seeking personal interviews with men 
on the subject of religion, he had pursued too in- 
direct a method. In the earlier part of his ministry 
he sought to bring these about in an incidental 
way. Afterwards he changed his plan, and kindly 



EVERTON JUDSON. 145 

invited such as he believed to be somewhat 
thoughtful to call upon him. The occasion of this 
change he thus stated to the author : " Calling one 
day at the study of a pastor, he informed me that 
he was expecting a young man to call in the 
course of a few minutes for religious conversation. 
I asked him what method he pursued in seeking 
such personal interviews. He replied that, when 
he judged a member of his congregation to be in 
a proper state of mind for the measure, he called 
upon him, invited him to his study, and frankly 
stated his object. Upon this some free conversa- 
tion on the subject occurred between us. I went 
home resolved to pursue a more direct course in 
obtaining interviews with the thoughtful, and I 
have found it a more successful way." He did 
not, however, enter into a personal conversation 
respecting their religious condition in the prelimi- 
nary interview, unless he discerned some tender- 
ness of feeling, but left this for subsequent oppor- 
tunities. 

His assiduity in visiting the sick and the afflic- 
ted has already been noticed. In these visits the 
administration of comfort, though a real, was with 
him a subordinate object. Firmly believing that 
the afflictive dispensations of God's providence 
are adapted and designed to recal men from the 
service of mammon to that of Christ, he sought 
with solicitous care to improve them to this high 
end, regarded them as golden opportunities for his 
13 



146 MEMOIR OF 

work, and expected to see saving divine influences 
follow his faithful labors. When a brother minis- 
ter once said to him that he did not expect any 
permanent religious results from affliction, he re- 
plied, " It is not so with me. When any of my 
congregation are in affliction, I feel that I have a 
special call to labor with them. My object is not 
simply to comfort them, but to lead them to 
Christ, and I expect to see them converted." He 
had great skill in approaching persons at such 
times, and often said that he had, in his own 
opinion, been the means of converting more souls 
in this way than in any other. Many members of 
his Church ascribed their conversion to his labors 
with them in seasons of affliction. He came to 
them with deep sympathy and tenderness, and 
was always able, by virtue of his power of dis- 
cerning character, to present to them the most ap- 
propriate truth in the most appropriate way. And, 
when he had once gained access in this way to the 
bosom of an unconverted person, he was not satis- 
fied with one or two efforts, but made it a point of 
duty to follow up the first good impression, till it 
should result, by the help of divine grace, in a 
saving knowledge of Christ. He had a rare facul- 
ty of drawing out men's feelings. It was a com- 
mon remark in Milan, that he would make one tell 
all his heart. 

In the article in the Biblical Repository, al- 
ready so often referred to, Mr. Judson has given 
his views of the reason why afflictions so seldom 



EVERTON JUDSON. 147 

result in the conversion of those who experience 
them. 

" It was but the other day we read in a popular 
quarterly, conducted with great ability, the fol- 
lowing sentiment, quoted as an approved apo- 
thegm : ' People are never so wicked as during a 
general mortality, or the ravages of the plague : 
and sailors get drunk as the vessel sinks.' For 
aught we know, the remark, as far as relates to the 
effects of the Gospel, may convey a historic truth 
of common occurrence. We have heard it from 
our boyhood, and till we were so far persuaded of 
its truth as to cast about for the philosophy of the 
fact, that sinners never repent and turn to God in 
seasons of deep affliction. The facts may be so, 
but we believe, if they are, the ministry of recon- 
ciliation is fearfully responsible for their existence. 
"When does a sermon result in the conviction or 
conversion of a sinner, unless the author of the 
discourse prepared and preached it in earnest ex- 
pectation of such results ? Let it become a part 
of the philosophy of any pastor, that sickness and 
death, and the various calamities with which God 
visits men, are never to result in their immediate 
conversion, and there is the best of all reasons for 
the failure. 

We might name the pastor of a Church, who 
has, for a long season of years, made special ef- 
forts to adapt the truth to the circumstances, and 
to press it upon the consciences of the families of 
his parish, whenever they have been visited with 



148 MEMOIR OF 

severe affliction, and almost ever with the happiest 
success. It is believed that he has realized more 
accessions to his Church, in connection with such 
instrumentalities, than from all other means." — 
Bib. Repository for 1847, pp. 723-4. 

In the pastor alluded to in the last part of this 
extract the reader will not fail to discern Mr. Jud- 
son himself. His view of the use to be made by 
the pastor of the afflictive dispensations which 
befall the members of his congregation, and of the 
permanent results to be expected from such a use, 
is so obviously correct and scriptural, that we can- 
not but wonder that any should have maintained 
a different view. In innumerable passages the 
Scriptures assert, and all evangelical pastors ad- 
mit, that afflictions are, in general, both designed 
and adapted to bring men to repentance. "Why 
then should any pastor fail to discern a golden op- 
portunity for the accomplishment of his appro- 
priate work when God has led the way before him, 
and is, as it were, beckoning him onward to co- 
operate with himself? It is not God's plan that 
afflictions alone should have a saving efficacy. 
Among the mass of unevangelizedmen they have no 
such efficacy. But by them he interrupts the sinner 
in his career of worldliness, embitters to him earthly 
delights, softens his feelings, and prepares the way 
for the reception of the word of life. Afflictions are, 
so to speak, the plough that breaks up the fallow 
ground. But if the pastor — the Lord's husbandman, 
does not follow and sow the seed of truth, no harvest 



EVERT0N JUDSON. 149 

of repentance will follow. Nor ought it to be ex- 
pected, as a general result, that an afflictive dis- 
pensation, even when accompanied with faithful 
pastoral labor, will, by a single stroke, accomplish 
the whole work. Very often it will be found to 
be only the first in a series of influences which, 
after a longer or shorter time, result, through the 
power of the Holy Spirit, in the soul's salvation. 
This was Mr. Judson's idea. His plan was to 
follow up afflictions by a system of efforts varied to 
suit each individual case. In this he was, as we 
have seen, singularly successful ; and his example 
may well be proposed for the imitation of all 
pastors. 

"We have seen that Mr. Judson's intimate ac- 
quaintance with his congregation enabled him to 
discern error in its incipient stages, and that his 
habit was to forestall such error by preaching the 
truth best adapted to meet it. It may be added 
that his manner of encountering error was rather 
indirect. It was not his way to give formal no- 
tice that he would preach on such a day against 
such a false doctrine or erroneous practice. Per- 
haps he believed that this would be a sort of invi- 
tation to its friends to come fully armed for its 
defense. He preferred to give to his people the 
antidote of an error in the shape of an inference 
from premises to which he had already gained 
their assent. It is well known, for example, that 
he was remarkably successful in excluding from 
13* 



150 MEMOIR OF 

his parish certain erroneous doctrines on the sub- 
ject of christian perfection which were, during a 
part of his ministry, inculcated with great zeal in 
the whole of this region. Yet he was never known 
to preach a sermon directly against those doctrines. 
He chose rather to exhibit what he believed to be 
the true scriptural doctrine of holiness, and then 
to show inferentially that such and such ideas of 
perfection are opposed to it. 

He kept himself fully acquainted with the char- 
acter of the periodicals taken in his congregation, 
and, from time to time, as favorable opportunities 
presented themselves, he made brief suggestions 
on the subject. The influence which he exerted 
in this quiet way in behalf of sound and whole- 
some publications was very great and salutary. 
He was also in the habit of loaning books to the 
members of his congregation, particularly the 
young, and it was his custom, when any volume 
was returned, to ask the reader his opinion respect- 
ing its contents. 

Mr. Judson had a high sense of his pastoral re- 
sponsibilities, and his rights in his own parish, 
and with intruders he was capable of being severe. 
Such were quite apt to fall in with him in their 
rounds, and to be handled in such a way that they 
had no desire to renew the encounter. The same 
rights which he claimed for himself among his 
own people, he most cordially conceded to the 



EVERTON JUDSON. 151 

pastors of other congregations, both of his own 
and of other denominations. In laboring in the 
parishes of his brethren, or with other ministers on 
common ground, he had a delicate sense of pro- 
priety, which kept him from every thing like offi- 
cious intermeddling. Toward that class of in- 
truders who, under color of zeal for some good 
cause, come in privily to alienate the affections of 
the people from their pastor, and draw off a party 
to their own side, he entertained a just abhorrence, 
and showed himself a formidable opponent, fol- 
lowing herein the inspired direction ; " Now I be- 
seech you, brethren, mark them which cause divi- 
sions and offenses, contrary to the doctrine which 
ye have learned ; and avoid them. For they that 
are such serve not the Lord Jesus Christ, but their 
own belly ; and by good words and fair speeches 
deceive the hearts of the simple." 

Mr. Judson's energy and decision of character, 
united with a sound judgment and talents for busi- 
ness of a high order, secured for him a permanent 
and paramount influence in his parish. His opin- 
ions, of which he was very tenacious, were gene- 
rally adopted, and most matters of importance 
were left to his management, perhaps too much so 
for the highest good of his people. Yet he was 
fully aware that he held his great power over his 
parish only on the tenure of a prudent and rea- 
sonable use of it. He was not in the habit, at 
least not in the latter period of his ministry, of 



152 MEMOIR OF 

coming directly across the feelings and opinions 
of his people. When subjects were proposed in 
the meetings of the Church from which he appre- 
hended excitement and alienation of feeling, his 
effort was to have the consideration of them defer- 
red till there should be time for reflection and mu- 
tual conference. If he had proposed a measure of 
which he was warmly in favor, but which he per- 
ceived was likely, if pressed, to produce division 
and opposition, it was his custom to withdraw it. 
Before making important movements he was 
always careful to ascertain the minds of the prin- 
cipal men in his Church. He often said that, 
should he find the feelings of three prominent men 
in his Church alienated from him, he should leave 
his post. Conversing one day respecting the 
troubles that had arisen in another parish, he cen- 
sured the pastor in severe terms for his indecision, 
and added, " If I were in his place I would know 
whether I was pastor or not." To this a lady pre- 
sent replied, " Mr. has not so many stiff backs 

to support him as you have." In private conver- 
sation afterwards with the author he said : " Mrs. 

spoke of the 'stiff backs ' in my congregation. 

But you know, brother B , that these stiffbacks 

require very careful management. To get along 
well with them, is a work of no little judgment 
and skill. I have found, sometimes, when I set 
on foot a plan which they have not examined, and 
do not carefully explain it to them and ask their 
opinion, they will stand perfectly still and be as 



EVERTON JUDSON. 153 

judicious ." To a brother minister he once 

said : " I let my people do as they wish ;" meaning 
that he was careful not to cross their wishes un- 
necessarily. But he was, at the same time, equally 
careful to put in a word here and a suggestion 
there, which should lead them to do as he wished, 
and this result he generally secured. 

Yet his feelings sometimes impelled him to hasty 
and unwise measures, and led him to say and do 
unhappy things. As has been already remarked, 
he was subject to seasons of great depression. At 
such times he saw every thing subjectively, (to use 
one of the terms which he so much disliked,) that 
is, through the medium of his own feelings, and 
as these were in a morbid condition, his views 
were, in like manner, unhealthy. On two or three 
of these occasions he sent in to the deacons of the 
Church his request that they and his people would 
unite with him in seeking a dissolution of the 
pastoral relation existing between himself and 
them. One of these was in 1838, soon after the 
completion of the new house of worship. At this 
time it must be acknowledged that he was suffer- 
ing under an unjust external pressure, being re- 
sponsible for a debt at one of the banks contracted 
in the progress of erecting the Church, which he 
thought his people remiss in paying. At this time 
he was, perhaps, willing that matters should be 
brought to a crisis. Another occasion was in 1845, 
when he addressed to the deacons of the Church 
a communication containing a very dark and dis* 



154 MEMOIR OF 

couraging view of the spiritual condition of his 
people, with complaints of their apathy and indif- 
ference in many particulars which he enumerated, 
and ending with a statement that " the spiritual 
welfare of this people demands that they should 
take an early opportunity to secure a dissolution 
of the pastoral relation, with the hope of securing 
some one to break to them the bread of life in 
whom they shall repose a more hearty confidence, 
and with whom they shall be more ready to co- 
operate, and whose wearied hands shall be stayed 
up by the Aarons and Hurs of the Church ;" — 
and with a further request that they u will take an 
early opportunity to consummate an event which 
will only be rendered more painful to me by 
delay." 

That the evils of which he complained were, 
to a great extent, real, there can be no doubt. 
But that the remedy proposed was the right one, 
he himself, when looking at the matter through 
the medium of his usual good judgment, instead 
of his depressed feelings, would hardly have af- 
firmed. This communication the deacons man- 
aged to keep from coming before the people, be- 
ing, in this matter also, " as judicious ." 

Nevertheless it had, through them, the effect of 
stirring up the Church to duty. 

The same sensitiveness and unevenness of feel- 
ing sometimes led him, in the Thursday evening 
meeting, to talk to his people with great severity, 
and in a strain which would not have been borne 



EVERTON JUDSON. 155 

from any other man. In his ministrations on the 
Sabbath also this sharpness frequently appeared 
in the earlier part of his ministry. Too much heat 
or cold, a little smoke, or a thin attendance greatly 
discomposed him. But towards the close of his 
ministry he had nearly overcome this infirmity. 
An incident that occurred in connection with the 
Thursday evening meeting, in one of the later 
years of his ministry, was the occasion of adminis- 
tering to him a salutary lesson of instruction. 

There had been in Milan many strolling lec- 
turers. One of these had obtained permission to 
deliver several lectures on mesmerism in the base- 
ment of the Church. It so happened, through the 
inadvertence of those who had charge of the mat- 
ter, that one of these fell on Thursday evening, 
thus interfering with Mr. Judson 's weekly religious 
meeting. He was greatly excited, and the next 
Sabbath omitted to make the usual public ap- 
pointment of the Thursday evening lecture. One 
of his people, supposing that the omission might 
have been through forgetfulness, ordered the bell 
to be rung, and the meeting was held as usual, 
but without the presence of the pastor. The 
question was raised by those present, " Shall the 
meeting be sustained?", and decided in the affir- 
mative. The next Sabbath he again omitted the 
appointment, and again the bell was rung and the 
meeting held. On the following week, at the 
stated church-meeting, he brought the matter be- 
fore the Church, and asked the opinion of the 



156 MEMOIR OF 

brethren on the expediency of maintaining the ex- 
ercise. All answered in the affirmative, and Mr. 
Judson frankly acknowledged that he had been in 
the wrong. From that time onward the meeting 
was maintained with new life. In reference to 
this event, he often said that he had, like Wash- 
ington, gained a victory by retreating. 



Section III. 
Mr. Judson in Ecclesiastical Meetings. 



"D 



Mr. Judson was eminently a man of public 
spirit. His views were not circumscribed by the 
bounds of his own parish, but he felt a deep in- 
terest in the prosperity of all the neighboring 
parishes and of the entire region, and was ever 
ready to do what lay in his power to advance the 
general interests of Christ's kingdom. This trait 
in his character began to show itself upon his first 
entrance into his field of labor ; and it lay at the 
foundation of the interest which he ever manifested 
in the meetings of his own Presbytery and of the 
Synod of the Western Reserve. These meetings 
he attended with great punctuality, and took an 
active part in their deliberations. No one man, 
probably, had more weight of influence than he on 
the floor of the Synod. His strength lay partly in 
his native energy and decision of character, and 



EVERTON JUDSON. 157 

partly in the clearness with which he apprehended 
all the points at issue, and the readiness with 
which he could present arguments to establish his 
own views. The following paragraph from the 
pen of one who was long associated with him in 
the same Presbytery, well sets forth the elements 
of his power in deliberative assemblies. 

" If there was one mental trait by which he was 
particularly distinguished above most men, it was 
the power of seeing almost at a glance the rela- 
tions and bearings of any question that was under 
discussion, or of any measure that was proposed 
for adoption. The rapidity of his judgment was 
like intuition. Almost equally rapid was his 
power of combination. He was almost never in 
doubt how to act in an emergency ; but would 
form a plan and suggest a method of procedure 
on the spur of the occasion, which would generally 
prove to be as well adapted to accomplish the 
object, as if it had been the fruit of long con- 
tinued study. It was these mental characteris- 
tics, combined with a ready command of forcible 
language, which gave him so much influence in 
deliberative assemblies. It was found that his 
views were generally correct : that his plans were 
suited to the exigencies of the case. These, com- 
bined with an open and frank disposition that 
knew no concealment, inspired great confidence in 
his opinions and suggestions." — Obituary Notice 
by Rev. A. Neivton, Ohio Observer, Aug. 30, 1848. 

He carefully avoided wasting his strength and 
14 



158 MEMOIR OF 

impairing his influence by the advocacy of mea- 
sures in which he had no hope of uniting the 
members of his Presbytery. When he wished to 
carry any point, his way was to consult privately 
those " who seemed to be pillars." If he found 
several opposed to his plan he was not in the 
habit of urging it. He preferred to drop it, or to 
wait for a more favorable occasion of presenting 
it. Herein, as in all his other relations, he had a 
steady eye to the peace and harmony of God's 
Church. 

As it was his lot to live in times of excitement 
and division on questions not only of theological 
belief, but also of church polity and of reform, it 
necessarily happened that he sometimes found 
himself opposed on the floor of an ecclesiastical 
body to men whose views were widely at variance 
with his own. Such found in him both a very 
formidable and a very uncomfortable adversary. 
He was ready to meet them on every side, and 
the weight of his arguments and influence they 
had just reason to fear. They knew, moreover, 
that, when he chose, he could assail an opponent 
with such a storm of sarcasm as few would care 
to encounter. It cannot be denied that, on such 
occasions, he was apt to be impetuous and head- 
strong. Nevertheless his impetuosity was, in al- 
most every instance, guided by a sound judgment 
and correct view of the matter in debate, and his 
warmest onsets had in view the harmony and wel- 
fare of Christ's body. 



EVERTON JUDSON. 159 

It sometimes happened that he had reason to 
believe that an opponent concealed his real grounds 
for advocating a given measure. In such cases he 
avoided placing himself in a false position by im- 
puting to his adversary a motive which could be 
easily denied ; but chose rather to keep him in his 
own false position, by meeting him on his avowed 
ground, and setting forth in various ways its in- 
adequacy. This game he sometimes carried on 
with great good nature and humor, evidently en- 
joying not a little the embarrassment which it oc- 
casioned. 

In the present connection Mr. Judson's relation 
to the monthly " Ministers' Meeting," held within 
the bounds of his Presbytery, may properly be no- 
ticed. Of this he was a constant attendant, and 
some of the best articles produced in it were from 
his pen. In those exercises of the meeting in 
which he took an interest — such as dissertations, 
reviews, plans of sermons, and the like — he was 
peculiarly happy. For exegesis and the reading 
of the Scriptures in the original languages, he had, 
for the reason already stated, little relish. In his 
criticisms upon the performances he always ex- 
celled. He had a rare talent of seizing at once 
upon the subject under discussion, and making 
happy off-hand remarks upon it. Ordinarily these 
remarks were in a kind tone, though sometimes 
his native tendency to bluntness and severity pre- 
vailed, and made his criticisms uncomfortable. 



160 MEMOIR OP 

His influence in the Ministers' Meeting was great, 
but it may be doubted whether its reaction upon 
his own character was not even greater. A well 
conducted ministers' meeting furnishes a genial 
and kindly influence, which is admitted by the 
several members so much the more readily be- 
cause it is silent and indirect. Mr. Judson was 
not a man to be compelled to receive influences, 
when they presented themselves before him with 
a magisterial air and demanded his submission. 
But his good sense and clear-sighted judgment 
made him peculiarly ready to take a good hint 
that came in an unassuming form. The Minis- 
ters' Meeting had a marked effect upon him in re- 
spect to his style of preaching. It was, indeed, 
one of the chief among the causes which operated 
to recall him from the loose method of preparing 
sermons, into which he had, at one time, fallen. 

In his views of church polity Mr. Judson was 
decidedly a Congregationalist. The existing ec- 
clesiastical organization on the Western Reserve 
he regarded as expedient — the best under present 
circumstances. In the last year of his ministry he 
commenced a series of articles in the Ohio Ob- 
server, which he never completed, designed to set 
forth and maintain the rights of Congregational 
churches under this organization. For such a se- 
ries of articles he thought there was need. To 
enter into a discussion of this point would be 
foreign to the design of the present memoir. It 



EVERTON JUDSON. 161 

is sufficient simply to say that his object was not 
to disturb the existing relations of Congregational 
and Presbyterian ministers and churches to each 
other, (a thing which, in so many words, he ex- 
pressly disavowed,) but to show what are the 
rights of Congregational churches under these re- 
lations. 



Section IV. 

His Efforts for the Young-. 

No part of Mr. Judson's character is more de- 
serving of commendation and imitation than his 
anxious and well directed efforts to secure the con- 
fidence and affection of the young. Like his 
father before him, he had a word for every child 
he met — a pleasant and pertinent word. One he 
asked concerning his studies ; another concerning 
something that had happened upon his father's 
farm, or in his father's business; another concern- 
ing the health of some member of his family ; by 
another he sent some message ; of another he in- 
quired in respect to some report that he had heard 
of him, with the addition of one or two short re- 
marks. These kind notices of the children of his 
parish, accompanied with his pleasant tone and 
open good-natured countenance, thrilled through 
their bosoms and quickened the blood in their 
14* 



162 MEMOIR OF 

veins. They did not shrink into some corner upon 
his approach, but met him with sparkling eyes 
and smiling faces. He had a peculiar talent for 
saying things in such a way that children would 
be sure to remember them. Almost every child 
in Milan can recollect some striking remark of 
his. 

His laborious preparation for the exercises of 
the weekly Bible class has already been mentioned. 
The primary end which he proposed in this was 
to interest the youth of his congregation, and thus 
bring them to the knowledge of Christ. To se- 
cure their confidence and affection, and keep them 
within the pale of the sanctuary, that he might 
thus bring them to the knowledge of Christ, he 
spared no pains, remembering that what they were 
his parish would soon be — that, if they should 
grow up in the fear of God, the Church would go 
on to prosper and enlarge her borders ; but if they 
should become alienated and withdraw themselves 
from her ordinances and influences, she must suf- 
fer the decrepitude of old age. Nothing struck the 
mind of the stranger, who had occasion to spend 
a Sabbath in Milan, more pleasantly than the 
manifest hold which he had upon the hearts of the 
yoUng in his parish. To the thoughtful mind no 
spectacle can be more animating than that of a 
congregation in which the children are found by 
the side of their fathers ; and nothing more sad 
than a sanctuary deserted by the youth of the 
parish. Over the door of such a Church is writ- 



EVERTON JUDSON. 163 

ten — " TJie glory is departed ;" and upon her pul- 
pit is inscribed " TekelP She is gone into anility, 
and unless God speedily " turn the heart of the 
fathers to the children, and the heart of the chil- 
dren to their fathers," she will die a natural death. 
It is with the hope of turning the attention of 
pastors more earnestly to this point, that Mr. Jud- 
son's anxious care for the youth of his parish has 
been so much insisted on. 

The same enlightened concern for the young 
impelled him to undertake the arduous work of 
establishing the Huron Institute. We have seen 
that this institution was brought into existence 
mainly by his energy and efforts. He himself 
claimed it as his own child, and his paternity was 
never denied by any one. It may be added, that 
he took a fatherly interest in its prosperity, watch- 
ing over it with constant solicitude, and exerted 
his influence to bring pupils within its walls. In 
projecting this Institute, its founders had in view, 
as we have seen, not only the general education 
of the young, but especially the preparation of 
young men for College who had the ministry in 
view. Such he carefully sought out, and, when 
he considered them worthy of encouragement, 
urged them to enter upon a course of education, 
and assisted them to obtain the requisite funds. 
As his own pecuniary resources were limited, this 
was accomplished by the presentation of their 
claims to such as were able to render them the 



164 MEMOIR OP 

needful aid. A large number of men now in the 
ministry first had their attention directed to it by 
him. 

In his ardor for accomplishing this work he 
sometimes went too far in the earlier years of his 
ministry. This he afterwards candidly acknow- 
ledged. To one of his confidential friends he said, 
that he had formerly erred in urging young men 
forward prematurely ; that thus he had encouraged 
unworthy persons ; that his present plan was to 
set facts before them with plainness and fidelity, 
and leave them to judge for themselves. "When 
any young man had commenced a course of study, 
he found in Mr. Judson a kind, though very candid 
counselor. His excellent judgment, the fertility of 
his invention in providing resources, and his warm 
sympathising manner, caused him to be very much 
resorted to by students in their embarrassments 
and trials. 

When the student had gone from the Institute 
to the College his solicitude for his welfare re- 
mained undiminished. It followed him from the 
commencement of the preparatory, to the comple- 
tion of the theological course. " I well remember," 
says one, " when I thought of leaving the Institu- 
tion of which he was a Trustee for another where 
I hoped to enjoy more ample pecuniary resources, 
how he invited me to sit down with him upon an 
apple-tree log in full view of the College buildings, 
and insisted that I must remain, and showed how 
I could obtain the requisite means. As he thus 



EVERTON JUDSON. 165 

conversed with me the tears streamed down his 
cheeks." His own sad experience of the evils of 
a defective preparation for College, led him to in- 
sist earnestly upon thoroughness in the prepara- 
tory studies. When the student had entered Col- 
lege he was strongly opposed to any interruption 
in his course. 

The following statements furnished the author 
by men who enjoyed his friendship and patronage, 
and who are well qualified to bear testimony on 
the subject, may serve as illustrations of what he 
was accustomed to do for young men who were 
in a course of preparation for the ministry. The 
first is from the pen of one who is now a mission- 
ary in the foreign field. 

" I remember often words of encouragement and 
incitement to keep me along, when I was almost 
ready to stop in order to obtain means. Two in- 
stances occur to me now. The one was in the 
second term of my Junior year in College. I re- 
ceived a letter from him saying that he had made 
up his mind that I must not stop for want of 
means, and that, if 1 had no other resort, I might 
call on him, and he would see that my wants were 
supplied. The letter contained five dollars, and I 
made use of the patronage offered several times 
before I graduated. I think that the amount for 
which he received a note at the close of my [Col- 
lege] course was not much short of a hundred 
dollars. 

The other instance was at the close of my 



166 MEMOIR OP 

second year in Theology. I told him I had no 
means and could not remain unless I took the aid 
of the Education Society^ which I had never used, 
and would not begin to use, in the last year of 
my course. His reply was as usual, l You must 
stay ;' and to effect this, he borrowed a hundred 
dollars from one of his parishioners who should 
wait on me till I could pay it. The plan suc- 
ceeded, and I completed my regular course. 

He was always strongly opposed to any inter- 
ruption either in my collegiate or theological 
course. A call upon him during vacation was al- 
ways attended with pleasant hints relative to my 
progress in study, or the difficulties which I en- 
countered. A very common reply to my complaint 
of trouble was a quotation of the text, (always as- 
sociated in my mind with him,) < It is good for a 
man that he bear the yoke in his youth.' " 

Another, who is now a useful pastor on the 
Western Reserve, bears the following testimony. 

" In no particular part of his pastoral efforts 
was Mr. Judson more successful than in looking 
up young men for the christian ministry. The 
future supply of the Church with the living 
teacher, was a subject that pressed with great 
weight upon his heart. Believing that the pre- 
sent generation of pastors cannot c continue by 
reason of death/ he felt it to be an indispensable 
part of his ministerial duty to do all in his power, 
to meet both present and future demands. He 
believed, moreover, that this work would not take 



EVERTON JUDSON. 167 

care of itself. Nor, in his opinion, would it be 
efficiently performed if left to the Church, or to the 
agents of the great benevolent societies, or even 
to the officers in our academies and colleges. His 
conviction was deep and actuating: that it must be 
attended to mainly by the pastors of the flock. 

And he endeavored to carry out his theory in 
practice. Hence originated his vigorous and self- 
denying efforts in founding and sustaining the 
Huron Institute. The same consideration induced 
him to suspend his pastoral labors for a time, at 
the earnest solicitations of the Trustees of the 
Western Reserve College, to engage in an agency 
to secure its permanent endowment. While he 
was an ardent advocate of the cause of education 
in general, he was still more desirous to furnish 
the Church and the world with an intelligent and 
thoroughly trained ministry. When he visited 
the common school and the Academy, he was ac- 
customed to note the most promising of the youth, 
and seek occasion privately to urge upon them 
the claims of the ministry. Many an earnest ap- 
peal has he made in the conference-room, in the 
Sabbath-school, at the monthly concert, and in 
the sanctuary, to the pious youth of his charge ; 
urging each one to propound the solemn question 
to himself, ' Ought I not to be a minister of 
Christ V Never can I forget the impression those 
appeals made upon my mind, even while impeni- 
tent. He was forward also in urging parents to 
dedicate their sons to this work. In his pastoral 



168 MEMOIR OP 

visits he generally had something to say on this 
subject. 

But Mr. Judson's eye was turned especially to 
the Huron Institute as his nursery of christian 
ministers. He knew all its pupils personally, and 
was generally acquainted with their parentage and 
early history, and their future plans. More than 
one entered those walls with the fixed purpose of 
preparing for business, but left them with a heart 
on fire for the sacred office, mainly through his in- 
fluence. In order to gain their confidence, and get 
a deeper insight into their characters, he would 
frequently invite them to his study, or take them 
with him to attend an evening meeting in some 
distant part of his parish. And the heart that 
would not open itself and its hidden purposes to 
his touch was peculiarly guarded. 

Mr. Judson had an ingenuity in developing the 
gifts and graces of his young men rarely equaled. 
As soon as one professed piety, he was ready with 
a test by which to try his sincerity. He would 
call upon him to pray and to speak in public im- 
mediately ; and enlist him at once in efforts for 
the spiritual good of others. Some careless com- 
panion was to be warned, some prodigal to be 
brought back to duty, or some Sabbath school to 
be collected and instructed in a destitute neigh- 
borhood. And as the work was laid out, so must 
it be performed. He was an accomplished logi- 
cian, who could successfully excuse himself from 
a mission to which Mr. Judson had appointed him. 



EVERTON JUDSON. 169 

In this way was he ever disciplining the pious 
and hopeful young men of his flock for the service 
of the Church. And the fruits of his labors are 
abundant. Probably no pastor on the Reserve 
has been instrumental, directly and indirectly, of 
putting so many into the sacred office within the 
same length of time. 

While he was pastor of the Church in Milan, 
twenty-six young men — all beneficiaries and more 
or less assisted by him — passed from under his eye 
to College. Of these nineteen have already en- 
tered the ministry, three have died, and the others 
are yet in their course of preparation to preach 
the gospel. Very many of this number would 
have devoted their lives to other employments had 
it not been for his special exertions in their be- 
half. 

And he did something more than counsel them 
as to their course of duty. He was always ready 
to render them all the pecuniary assistance in his 
power. During the embarrassment of the Educa- 
tion Society in 1837-38-39, many of the benefi- 
ciaries were obliged to board themselves in their 
rooms, and live upon a very spare and stinted al- 
lowance. Some subsisted for days together upon 
crackers alone. The kindness of Mr. Judson and 
his generous-hearted lady was most conspicuous 
in those dark days, and prevented many a dis- 
heartened student from an utter abandonment of 
his studies. Scarcely a week passed that did not 
bring to them some i material aid and comfort * 
15 



170 MEMOIR OF 

from the parsonage. Sometimes it came in trie 
form of provisions sent to their rooms. At others 
they were invited, either collectively or individual- 
ly, to partake of a gratuitous meal prepared for 
them in his own house. And he did quite as 
much by his counsel on such occasions to inspire 
the soul with a purpose to persevere in the good 
work, as he did to refresh the body by the staff of 
life. If he heard of one who was about to ' give 
up the ship ? because ' the wind was so contrary/ 
he would seek an interview with him at once, for 
the purpose of persuading him to continue his 
struggle a little longer, assuring him that the 
4 darkest hour was just before day/ He would 
narrate bis own severe but successful contests with 
pecuniary embarrassments. Then he would dis- 
close some plan he himself had already formed to 
render the young man aid. Either be had made 
arrangements to take him into his own family and 
give him his board • or he had enlisted some 
wealthy friend in his behalf; or some neighboring 
parish had agreed to support him through his en- 
tire course of study ; or some lucrative situation 
had been secured, in which the young man could 
save enough in a few weeks or months, to enable 
him to pursue his studies again without difficulty. 
No way was so strait and perplexing but Mr. Jud- 
son could foresee a hopeful egress. His plan did 
not always succeed — but when it did not — which 
was rare indeed — it was a safe bridge over a pre- 
sent difficulty. 



EVERTON JUDSON. 171 

The following is a specimen of his ingenuity 
in devising schemes of support for the indigent 
student In the spring of 1839, on a dark foggy 
morning, two of the disheartened beneficiaries, 
who, I believe, were on the last year of their pre- 
paration for College, called on Mr. Judson, to ask 
his opinion in reference to relinquishing their 
studies. After a very minute but delicate investi- 
gation of their circumstances and feelings, he said 
he had a proposition to make, but that they could 
do as seemed best about accepting it. Said he, 
1 I have a piece of very rich bottom land on the 
run back of the Institute ; and I will give you the 
use of as much of it as you have a mind to spade 
up and plant with sugar beets. This business, 
you know, is getting to be quite common and bids 
fair to be very profitable ; and who knows how 
much you may make this summer in this way ? 
All your outlay will be for the seed, as the labor 
can all be performed by yourselves, without any 
interference whatever with your studies. And, in 
addition to the money you will probably get for 
your beets, you will receive a still greater advan- 
tage from the regular exercise it will afford you.' 
The proposal appeared to be both generous and 
wise, and was cheerfully acceded to. When the 
proper time arrived, the ground was staked out, 
thoroughly spaded, and planted. Morning by 
morning could be seen the two young men delving 
away in the beet-patch. Sometimes the dews of 
evening would distil and mingle with the sweat 



172 MEMOIR OF 

of their persevering, but hopeful toil. Not unfre- 
quently Mr. Judson himself was an eye witness 
to the laborious faithfulness of his two young 
friends, being always ready to drop a word of ap- 
probation and encouragement; manifesting as 
much interest in the enterprise as he would if the 
profits were to be all his own. 

Time passed on. Soon after the beets were up 
a drought set in which continued to the end of 
dog-days. And so hot was the summer, and so 
scorching were the winds and scanty the rains and 
dews, that the bright vision of the beet specula- 
tors began to disappear rapidly. It continued to 
vanish away, until it was so nearly dissolved that 
Mr. Judson's old cow finally disposed of the beet 
crop, root and branch, in one or two meals without 
any difficulty. Both parties were greatly disap- 
pointed in this unlooked for result, but I do not 
know that any very serious consequences followed. 
Mr. Judson lost the use of his ground, and the two 
students their beet-seed and hard labor. But it 
was by no means a bootless experiment. That 
beet-patch was the c crossing the Rubicon ' to the 
young men, and to Mr. Judson was a satisfactory 
test of their grit and willingness to help them- 
selves, which probably was one object he had in 
view in making such a proposal. Having found 
them faithful in a very little, he deemed them 
worthy of much, and ever after was incessant in 
his acts of kindness to them through the whole of 
their studies. Both of them entered College, 



EVERTON JUDSON. 173 

pressed their way through, in the face of much 
pecuniary embarrassment, have since studied the- 
ology, and are now in the ministry. If they ever 
do any thing to honor God and save souls, very 
much of the credit will be due to Mr. Judson and 
the beet speculation. Many other facts of a simi- 
lar character could be related, bearing upon the 
same traits of his character, did time permit. But 
this one must suffice. 

Should every minister imitate Mr. Judson in 
this respect, how long would it be before the halls 
of our colleges and seminaries would be filled with 
candidates for the sacred office, and all the desti- 
tute portions of our land be blessed w T ith the la- 
bors of the living teacher of the holy gospel ? 
Is it not reasonably expected and demanded of 
such as shared so liberally in his benefactions, 
that they will follow him in this part of their 
ministerial labors ?" 

Another still says : 

" My personal acquaintance with Mr. Judson 
was only during the time of my stay at the Huron 
Institute, a term of two years. On my first visit 
at his house I was not decided to take a collegiate 
course of education, having been advised by my 
pastor to take a partial course. Mr. Judson in- 
quired my age. and my means, and somewhat of 
my ability ; whether I could study hard and long. 
He said my means were not sufficient, but by aid 
from the Education Society I could get through, 
and the course he advised was that of a thorough 
15* 



174 MEMOIR OF 

collegiate education. He said my age was about 
his when he entered upon a course of education ; 
though rather old it was no objection. Then he 
went on to give a condensed biography of himself, 
and this he did in such an animated way and with 
so much enthusiasm, that when I turned to leave 
I soliloquized thus : Well, if Mr. Judson, a man 
of such influence and power, was, at my age, as he 
says, such as I am, why may not I, at Mr. Judson's 
age, be as useful as he ? If a man can, by labor 
and perseverance, thus rise through all sorts of 
difficulties, and become a man of such extensive 
usefulness, may not I by the same course at least 
hope to accomplish something? "What man has 
done, man can do. A new thought crowded on 
my mind. It was that a man could and must 
make himself. Hope rose high. 

It is my wish, as one point of usefulness of your 
memoir, that you make prominent the state of Mr. 
Judson's mind when he entered upon his studies, 
point out the difficulties he surmounted, mark ac- 
curately his mental progress, tell when, where and 
how he met and vanquished obstacles. In my 
opinion it will do more to inspire, encourage ; and 
sustain the christian ministry in all its primitive 
devotion, earnestness, boldness and loftiness, to 
present in its fulness this one living example, than 
would whole volumes of theories. He managed 
to get young men into a course of study by Ms 
own example. He helped them through their dif- 
ficulties by his example — he encouraged them by 



EVERTON JUDSON. 175 

his example. The recital of his own history, told 
in the simple, graphic style of Homer's Iliad, in- 
flamed the mind of every young listener, and 
awakened longings for powers of usefulness. His 
story always showed how power was gained, by 
resolution and perseverance in overcoming diffi- 
culties ; how man grows, how he becomes strong. 
The means of success were no longer dark or 
doubtful. His own history showed one just where 
and how to labor. Hence his success in getting 
young men through a thorough course into the 
gospel ministry. 

Another element, which tended greatly to en- 
courage and fortify young men in their progress in 
study, was his decided religious influence. If a 
young man, a professor of religion, came to the 
Institute, and was not seen in his place at the 
prayer-meeting, Mr. Judson would ask the reason, 
and he would press the young man's conscience 
till his place was regularly filled. And he was 
not permitted to sit as an idle spectator ; he must 
have something to do ; he must pray at the prayer- 
meeting, and he must get up and (as Mr. Judson 
used to express it) ' not make a set speech, but tell 
some simple truth.' If a student at the Institute 
did not work he was sure to meet with Mr. Jud- 
son's cutting rebuke. And he never spared a 
troubled conscience. I have seen young men cut 
down and then hewn in pieces. In this respect 
Mr. Judson showed no mercy. 

Mr. Judson went further. On the Sabbath his 



176 MEMOIR OF 

eye was on the congregation. If he saw a mem- 
ber of the Institute, whether a professor or not, 
hold his head down or show any want of atten- 
tion, (and listlessness was least to be expected in 
one of his discourses,) that person was sure to have 
some cutting question asked him by Mr. Judson 
the next time they met; and, as he lived just 
across the way from the Institute, the inattentive 
one did not usually escape longer than till Monday 
or Tuesday. 

Mr. Judson's rebukes were very severe, yet ad- 
ministered in such a way as not to give offense. 

Dec. 6, 1843, he gave us a lecture at the Insti- 
tute, and took for his theme, ' The inducements to 
a thorough education? In it he spoke much of 
Roger Sherman, how he overcame his difficulties ; 
how every one is self taught ; how long and hard 
study makes a strong man ; how the secret of pro- 
gress and success in learning is to take every 
thing thoroughly ; how important is thorough dis- 
cipline of mind ; how one must learn to think, and 
think closely and accurately and consecutively. 
These points, presented in Mr. Judson's own style, 
made a good impression, and some half a dozen 
of his listeners have since graduated at the West- 
ern Reserve College." 

Mr. Judson had no children of his own. He 
often received as inmates of his family for a longer 
or shorter period the children of others ; and over 
such he watched with truly parental solicitude. 



EVERTON JUDSON. 177 

He commonly had also some boarders in his fami- 
ly who were in attendance upon the Huron Insti- 
tute. Of those who thus came more immediately 
under his influence it has been remarked that an 
unusual number became Christians, and Christians 
too of that class who did not go back into the 
world. 

He had a jocular turn of mind in which he 
sometimes indulged himself with his young 
friends. But if any, presuming upon their famil- 
iarity, attempted to practice upon him their witti- 
cisms, they were soon made to understand that in 
this business the personation of the active voice 
belonged to him, and of the passive, to themselves. 
A dignified silence, or a grave question to a third 
person on some topic as far removed as possible 
from the matter on hand, was among the ways in 
which he conveyed to the offender the hint that he 
did not place him on a level with himself. Even 
his intimate friends and equals understood well 
that it became them to be very careful in this 
matter. 

It remains to consider Mr. Judson's efforts for 
the young in connection with the Western Re- 
serve College. He had not the honor to be num- 
bered among its founders and pioneer patrons. 
The subscription list was opened in 1823, before 
its location in Hudson, under the agency of the 
Rev. Caleb Pitkin, and it was prosecuted for the 



178 MEMOIR OF 

space of six years before he came upon the ground. 
His earliest recorded donation to the College was 
in 1831. He does not appear to have become 
deeply interested in its affairs till about the year 
1837. From that time to the day of his death he 
was numbered among the warmest and most effi- 
cient friends of the Institution. Of his election, 
in 1842, to the office of a Trustee, and his tempo- 
rary agency the following year mention has al- 
ready been made. But it may be proper here to 
review the results of his labors for that Institu- 
tion. 

And first of all it may be confidently affirmed 
that no pastor on the Western Reserve was the 
means of directing so many young men to the 
College for an education preparatory to the work 
of the ministry. One of these, to whom the au- 
thor made application for an expression of his 
views on the subject, answered, briefly but very 
comprehensively, u If it had not been for Mr. Jud- 
son, I should not have been here." So might other 
ministers at home and in the foreign field answer. 
It was by his agency that their thoughts were 
turned towards the work of the ministry, and their 
steps directed to the Western Reserve College. 
For accomplishing this most desirable end he had 
already provided, in the Huron Institute, in which 
he ever had a paramount influence, a most efficient 
instrumentality. 

Then again his influence in behalf of the Col- 
lege in his own congregation, and throughout the 



EVERTON JUDSON. 179 

whole adjacent region was most happy. Well 
knowing that knowledge and mutual intercourse 
lie at the foundation of true affection and interest, 
he was at pains to introduce the officers of the 
College to the acquaintance of his people, by 
means of addresses and courses of lectures, They 
were sure ever to meet with a generous reception, 
and the mutual acquaintance thus formed was 
productive of the happiest results. It was not by 
some lucky contingency, but through the influence 
of his long continued and judicious labors, assisted 
by men of his own spirit, that, in the late effort to 
endow the College, so rich a harvest was reaped 
from Huron and Erie counties. He had, indeed, 
gone to his rest. But his spirit, like a good 
leaven, had diffused itself throughout the region. 
The title of " Judson Professorship" given to the 
Professorship raised in these two counties, is not 
3,n empty name. Its meaning is that to influences 
which emanated from him the College is, under 
God, principally indebted for its success in that 
effort. Now that he can no longer be present in 
person, he still helps the Institution through the 
good influences in its behalf of which he was 
once the centre ; and so long as there shall remain 
a breast inspired with his spirit, so long will there 
be one to pray for the prosperity of the Western 
Reserve College, and to help it in its necessities. 



180 MEMOIR OF 

Section V. 
His Position in regard to Questions of Reform. 

We have seen the decided stand which Mr. 
Judson took on the subject of temperance very- 
early in the history of the temperance reformation, 
while he was yet employed on his father's farm in 
Woodbury. It would be superfluous to add that 
this cause ever found in him a stanch and efficient 
advocate. 

His love for the colored race was sufficiently 
manifested by his laborious efforts for their intel- 
lectual and spiritual welfare during his collegiate 
and theological course. He was one that loved 
the children of Africa " not in word neither in 
tongue, but in deed and in truth." For noisy de- 
monstrations of his regard for their welfare he had 
no relish. He chose the more excellent way of 
doing them good as he had opportunity, in a quiet 
and unostentatious form: and yet he did not shrink 
from a public avowal of his relation to them when 
he judged it necessary. On the occasion of the 
final emancipation of the people of color in the 
State of New York in 1824, the colored congrega- 
tion in New Haven celebrated the event by a pub- 
lic procession. One of the teachers in the Sabbath 
school was unwilling to appear with his pupils in 
this formal manner; but Mr. Judson marched at 
the head of the procession by the side of Mr. Joce- 



EVERTON JUDSON. 181 

lyn, because he thought it right on such an occa- 
sion to let his position in the colored congregation 
be known. 

When the anti-slavery sentiment of the North 
began to embody itself in the form of abolition 
societies, he made a very characteristic remark — 
that he believed he should be an abolitionist if 
he was not afraid of running mad. The remark 
was made in view of the extravagance of some of 
the leaders. He did become a warm abolitionist, 
was a member of the Huron County Anti-Slavery 
Society, and occasionally delivered anti-slavery 
addresses, but he took care to keep his senses and 
his independence too. 

He went very heartily with the Abolition So- 
ciety until the proposal was made by the leaders 
to give it a distinctly political aspect. The first 
movement in his region in this direction was at 
an anti-slavery meeting held in the Huron Insti- 
tute about the year 1836. A resolution was intro- 
duced that candidates for office should be publicly 
questioned respecting their views on the subject. 
A warm debate ensued, in which Mr. Judson 
earnestly opposed the measure, as giving to the 
Society a political aspect, and declared, with no 
little heat, that if this principle was to prevail he 
had done with the Society. It did prevail, and 
he was as good as his word, for he never after- 
wards attended its meetings. 

The principle which he ever strenuously advo- 
cated in regard to all voluntary associations for 
16 



182 MEMOIR OF 

moral reform was that they ought to stand upon a 
purely moral basis, and not to invoke political aid 
for the accomplishment of their objects. That the 
people, acting in their proper capacity as citizens, 
may lawfully legislate in respect to slavery or any 
other political evil, he did not of course deny. 
But he insisted that voluntary societies proposing 
to themselves a moral end, should rely on moral 
means alone. His argument was that a resort to 
political aid tends to corrupt the purity of these 
societies, and convert them into engines for the 
use of political hypocrites. This principle he ap- 
plied to all voluntary associations — for temperance, 
for anti-slavery, for the suppression of Sunday 
mails, etc. On this ground he refused to sign a 
petition to Congress against Sunday mails. Many 
of his brethren thought that in this matter he went 
to an extreme. It has been the aim of the author 
to state his position correctly, and leave it to the 
judgment of the reader. 

In all questions of moral reform Mr. Judson was 
disposed to go beneath the surface and look at the 
reality. He would not assent to measures which 
he believed to be wrong because their advocates 
marched under the banner of freedom, and might, 
perchance, apply to him the epithet of " pro- 
slavery." Nor would he put up at a hotel because 
its front was labeled " Temperance House," unless 
it was in other respects worthy of patronage ; for 
he did not believe that the landlord had a right, 
under color of keeping a temperance house, to put 



EVERTON JUDSON, 183 

him off with poor accommodations. Having oc- 
casion one morning to stop in his carriage before 
the door of a " Temperance House " where he had 
not staid the preceding night, (having been enter- 
tained at a private house,) the landlord, who sus- 
pected him of being hostile to his establishment, 
improved the opportunity to deliver to him a lec- 
ture on the impropriety of his course. Mr. Judson 
listened with dignified silence till he was pleased 
to bring his homily to a close. He then said, 
" I do not know that I have any thing to say in 
reply : good morning, Sir :" and, with a formal 
bow, drove ofE 



CHAPTER IX. 



HIS LAST SICKNESS AND DEATH. 

Till the twenty-second year of his age Mr. 
Judson worked on a farm. During this period his 
health was good. The change in his habits when 
he commenced the work of preparation for the 
ministry operated unfavorably to his health. In 
the College and Theological Seminary he was 
pale, thin, and dyspeptic. He was through his 
whole life subject to severe attacks of sickness, 
particularly when traveling. From irregularities 
in diet he suffered much. We have seen how his 
health was completely broken down during his 
Sabbath School agency in Ohio, and how, imme- 
diately upon his arrival in Milan, he was seized 
with chills and fever, from which he suffered all 
the following winter. After his recovery from that 
attack he enjoyed better health, and the tendency 
in his constitution to corpulency began to mani- 
fest itself. From excessive lifting on one occasion 
during the erection of the Church, he injured him- 
self greatly, and was laid aside several days with 



EVERTON JUDSON. 185 

a severe pain in his right side. After that event 
he was never able to endure severe exercise. 

Mr. Judson was fond of gardening, and the cul- 
tivation of his house-lot, upon which he bestowed 
much care, afforded an agreeable and exhilarating 
exercise that was greatly conducive to his health. 
But, for the two years preceding the fatal attack 
which put an end to his public life, he labored but 
little in his garden, while his toils in his study 
and parish were increasing. He was naturally of 
an apoplectic make, and had now become quite 
corpulent. Premonitory symptoms of apoplexy 
began at this time to show themselves. For many 
months he complained of a constant ringing in his 
ears and flashes of light from his eyes. On one 
occasion, while at table, there was a sudden rush 
of blood to the head with dizziness and blindness, 
This occurred but once, and its duration was very 
brief. Yet so well convinced was he of the nature 
of this and of the other symptoms, that he had 
begun to read and make investigations in refer- 
ence to the disorder which they foretokened. 

It is greatly to be regretted that, aware as he 
was of the danger which threatened him, he did 
not relax his mental, and increase his physical la- 
bors. But he had commenced a course of lectures 
on the Evidences of Revelation, to the prepara- 
tion of which his whole soul was given. He had 
succeeded in awakening a deep interest in the 
subject, which he felt himself fully committed to 
sustain. The preparation of these lectures was to 
16* 



186 MEMOIR OF 

his mental powers very expensive and exhausting, 
requiring much reading and careful investigation. 
To a friend he stated, just before the attack of 
apoplexy, that his sermons on the Evidences of 
Christianity cost him more than double the labor 
of his ordinary discourses. 

While thus severely taxing himself with his 
preparations for the pulpit, he received an invita- 
tion, in November 1847, to deliver an address be- 
fore the Young Men's Library Association in 
Cleveland. Such an opportunity to exert a good 
influence in behalf of young men he was not the 
man to let pass unimproved. Upon a short notice 
he prepared an address with great care and labor. 
While he was in Cleveland, it was noticed by his 
friends that he was oppressed with an unusual 
lethargy. He returned to Milan on Saturday with 
no preparation for the ensuing Sabbath. He had 
announced a special subject in his course of ser- 
mons, and he could not admit the thought of dis- 
appointing the congregation. He wrote till after 
midnight, lay down and slept two or three hours, 
and then resumed his toil, completing his dis- 
course just before the hour of meeting. This im- 
prudence was the more remarkable, when we con- 
sider that the symptoms of apoplexy had been so 
plain that he himself had expressed his apprehen- 
sion of an attack. 

It was on the afternoon of Sabbath, the 19th 
day of December, two weeks after this extraordi- 
nary effort, and while he was engaged in the 



EVERTON JUDSON. 187 

prayer before sermon, that the attack came on. 
His voice suddenly ceased, and he fell forward 
with a groan upon the pulpit. The loss of con- 
sciousness was but brief, and he was able to walk 
across the street to the house of Dr. Galpin. 

Of his own choice he now put himself, contrary 
to the advice of his physicians, upon an extremely 
low diet. This he did from the impression that 
his life depended upon it, as he had constant apo- 
plectic symptoms, such as a pressure on the brain 
and ringing in the ears. Meanwhile a journey to 
the eastern states, including a visit to Woodbury, 
his native place, had been projected, with the hope 
that he might derive benefit from it. About the 
middle of May, after he had commenced this jour- 
ney accompanied by Mrs. Judson, the apoplectic 
symptoms suddenly ceased, and signs of a vitiated 
state of the secretions of the liver appeared. It 
was manifest that the brain had been relieved at 
the expense of the liver and digestive organs. It 
was the opinion of his physicians that the disor- 
der which now began to show itself, and which 
soon put an end to his earthly existence, was a 
schirrous affection of some internal organ, proba- 
bly the liver. To affections of this kind there was 
a predisposition in his family. His brother Ben- 
jamin died of a similar difficulty. He prose- 
cuted his journey to the East and visited his na- 
tive home. 

From Green's Farms he wrote, June 22, 1848, 
to Dr. M. Stuart of Milan, as follows : " So far as 



188 MEMOIR OP 

my head has been concerned, I could, for the last 
three weeks, have preached; but such has been 
my general debility that I have scarcely felt able 
to walk half a mile, and that at an exceedingly 
moderate gait. This state of health has kept the 
future, so far as this world is concerned, quite 
veiled." After detailing his distressing symptoms, 
he goes on to say : " I must beg of you not to in- 
fer from all this tale of woe, that I have been dis- 
spirited or gloomy. I believe I have been cheer- 
ful as usual, except at those periods when my 
sufferings have been such as to prostrate strength 
and spirits together. I think my protracted pros- 
tration has made the world look more worthless 
than ever before, and yet I cling to it. I should 
like yet again to preach in my Master's name, and 
on his behalf, but I will not complain, though he 
slay me. * * * I can say nothing definite about 
a return. I wish to give a fair trial to the climate ; 
but, if I do not gain soon, I shall undertake a re- 
turn. I had rather be sick and die in Milan, than 
in any other spot on earth." 

His journey to the East was attended with no 
apparent benefit, and he returned to Milan on the 
18th of July in a state of extreme debility and 
suffering. 

Such was his prostration at one time during his 
stay in Woodbury that he well nigh despaired of 
ever returning home. The apprehension of dying 
at a distance from his beloved people in Milan 
was to him a cause of great uneasiness ; and, after 



EVERTON JUDSON. 189 

his return, he frequently expressed his devout 
gratitude to God for the privilege of spending his 
last hours in the bosom of the congregation to 
whose spiritual good he had so many years de- 
voted himself. 

His disease progressing rapidly, soon assumed 
its final form, that of abdominal dropsy, and 
it was manifest that all hope of a favorable issue 
was at an end. It remains to consider the closing 
scene in his life. The following extract from the 
sermon preached by the Rev. A. Newton on the 
occasion of his funeral, well expresses the charac- 
ter of this. " The last hours of Mr. Judson were 
in beautiful harmony with the whole tenor of his 
life. His was a religion of deep-seated principle, 
resembling the equable flow of a majestic river, 
rather than the fitful impetuosity of a mountain 
torrent. His dying conduct, like his living, bore 
the impress of holiness to the Lord. There were 
no raptures — no ecstasies — but a calm confidence, 
a peaceful trust in God. His spirit obeyed the 
divine will as the law of its being — abased itself 
before the infinite purity of the Divine majesty — 
manifested its adoring gratitude for redemption, 
and its self-renouncing faith in the Redeemer. 
These, as they were the elements of his piety, and 
its grand characteristic in life, were conspicuous 
in death." 

During the whole of his last sickness his suffer- 
ings were great and unintermitted. He never 
seemed to have a moment's ease. Yet of these 



190 



MEMOIR OF 



sufferings he was never heard to complain. He 
spoke of them with cheerfulness, as those which 
his heavenly Father had appointed him to bear in 
order that he might be delivered from the body. 
To Mrs. Judson he remarked, that they were just 
such sufferings as he had anticipated — that many 
of his family had suffered in the same way before 
him. With reference to his languishing condi- 
tion, with the certain prospect of death before 
him, he once said to Mr. Newton : " Since I have 
been sick, perhaps no human language can better 
express my feelings than Toplady's hymn," the 
first verse of which he repeated : — 

" When languor and disease invade 

This trembling house of clay, 
'Tis sweet to look beyond my pains, 

And long to fly away." 

He added, " I would except the word i long] 
and substitute for it wait : for it would seem pre- 
sumption, in one so much encompassed with in- 
firmities as I am, to long- to fly away." 

Of death he ever spoke with entire composure 
as of a journey to his heavenly home, expressing 
a humble but firm hope of his interest in Christ. 
As he was looking through the window one morn- 
ing at his garden, about a week before his death, 
he exclaimed, " How beautiful !" A friend said, 
" Do you not regret to leave it ?" " Oh no," he 
replied, " I feel that I am letting go of earth." 
During the progress of his disease, Dr. John Dela- 
mater of Cleveland visited him, and, with his usual 



EVERTON JUDSON. 191 

frankness, communicated to him his view of his 
condition. His wife's mother coming in soon 
after the doctor's departure, he took her hand with 
a placid countenance, pressed it tenderly, and said, 
" Well, mother, Dr. Delamater has just left. He 
says there is nothing that can arrest the rapid 
downward course of my disease ; and I think I 
can say, i Even so, Father, for so it seemeth good 
in thy sight.' " Seeing one day his wife in tears, 
he said tenderly, " I have all the joy, you have all 
the trial of this separation." A friend, before 
praying with him, had read to him our Savior's 
last prayer for his disciples. After he was gone 
he said to Mrs. Judson, with eyes filled with tears, 
" What a privilege to have been included in that 
prayer !" His oft repeated declaration to his friends 
was that he found the gospel which he had preach- 
ed to others fully adequate to meet all his wants. 
" I never realized so fully before," he said, " that 
there is 'none other name under heaven given 
among men, whereby we must be saved.' " 

In reviewing his ministry he said, " I felt re- 
luctant to commence a course of study for the 
ministry, on account of my advanced age. I did 
it at the earnest request of my father. I have 
been twenty years in that office, and that, I sup- 
pose, is as long as the average life of ministers. 
So far as labor is concerned, I have nothing to re- 
gret. I have done all I could. But the manner 
and spirit in which this work has been per- 
formed have fallen far below what they should 



192 MEMOIR OP 

have been. How much have I to regret in that 
respect ! 

The parting intercourse of a faithful pastor 
with his people is of a high and holy character. 
As the lamp of life grows dim and begins to 
flicker, the flame of his affection for them kindles 
into new purity and splendor. His love for them 
has taken hold of eternity, and it is natural that, 
as he draws near to his heavenly home, he should 
think much of those whose preparation for the 
same blest abode has been the very scope of his 
ministry. Nothing in the closing scene of Mr. 
Judson's life is more touching than his affectionate 
regard for the members of his congregation.* 
The little strength he had to spare he spent in 
conversing with them as they called upon him. 
Upon them all he urged faithfulness in the dis- 
charge of their christian duties, varying his exhor- 
tations according to their different circumstances 
and relations, and he hardly ever failed to add an 
earnest exhortation to " keep the unity of the 

* Since writing the above the author has met with the following 
just and beautiful reflection, in the Memoir of Dr. William Gordon, 
published by the Presbyterian Board of Publication. It is here inserted 
as applicable, in the fullest sense of the words, to the last days of Mr. 
Judson's life. 

" There is a sad satisfaction in a deliberate farewell previous to a 
long separation, the loss of which is the greatest evil connected with 
the sudden death of a Christian. But this privilege was fully enjoyed 
in the present instance, and a rich legacy of love and piety bequeathed 
to survivors, more precious than any worldly wealth." — Triumph over 
Death, p. 86. 



EVERTON JUDSON. 193 

spirit in the bond of peace." These words were 
constantly on his lips. Of the unconverted in his 
congregation he said, " My preaching to them is 
done." When they entered his room he generally 
addressed them to the following effect ; " I com- 
mend to you the gospel of Christ : it sustains me 
now." 

To his brethren in the ministry, to his people, 
and to the youth of his congregation, he sent by 
Mr. Newton his dying messages. — " Tell the 
brethren of the Ministers' Meeting and of the 
Presbytery that I thank them for the confidence 
they have reposed in me: I have loved to labor 
with them, and to be associated with them : tell 
them to be earnest, earnest in the work of the 
Lord. Express to my people my dying obliga- 
tions to them for the long continued confidence 
and love which they have manifested towards me, 
notwithstanding my many infirmities. If I have 
been in any degree useful, I owe my usefulness in 
a great measure to the manner in which the 
Church has stood by and sustained me. Remem- 
ber me affectionately to the youth of the congre- 
gation, and say especially to the young members 
of the Church that I honor them for their con- 
stancy and faithfulness in Christ's service. Tell 
my congregation to prepare to meet me at the 
judgment-seat of Christ. Say to all that the great 
truths which I have preached to them sustain me 
now, and are completely adequate to all my wants. 
I am satisfied that the views I have entertained, 
17 



194 MEMOIR OF 

in regard to both doctrines and measures, are sub- 
stantially correct ; and the errors I have combatted 
appear to be magnified rather than diminished." 

Earnestness in the work of the ministry was a 
theme much upon his lips when conversing with 
his brethren. The following words, addressed to 
one who had but just entered upon that holy of- 
fice, are very characteristic of his own spirit. 
" Be a man : be an earnest, earnest man. Make 
your people feel that you love their souls. One 
earnest heart is worth more than a hundred drones. 
You have just entered on your course : you have 
fallen on times of commotion and trial. Don't 
spare yourself: don't spare yourself. Some men 
wear themselves out early, but they accomplish 
more than those that live longer. Be an earnest, 
faithful minister of the gospel of Christ." 

Respecting his successor in the pastoral office 
he felt deep solicitude, and recommended confi- 
dentially to some of his people the brother who 
succeeded to his place. 

On the Thursday evening preceding his death, 
a severe paroxysm of his disease came on, and he 
was thought to be in a dying condition. He called 
together the members of his family, took his leave 
of them, delivered to them his parting messages, 
and closed with a prayer for himself ending with 
the stanza — 

" Jesus, to thy dear faithful hands 

My naked soul I trust : 
My flesh is waiting thy commands 

To drop into the dust." 



EVERTON JUDSON. 195 

Yet he revived a little, and lingered through the 
remainder of the week. On Saturday, about noon, 
a great change was apparent, indicating his 
speedy release from the body. At this time he 
was resting in a nearly upright position, supported 
by pillows. To Mrs. Judson he said, " Lay me 
down," and, when this was done, added, u How 
blessed it would be to pass away now!" On Sab- 
bath morning, about four or five o'clock, his wife 
said to him, " We do not think you will live long." 
He replied, « Well, God will do right." She then 
asked him if he was able to have any distinct 
thoughts of God and Christ. He answered, " Not 
many ;" but added, " Jesus Christ has been a pre- 
cious Savior to me." These were his last words. 
It was the 20th of August, a calm summer's 
morning. The sun had newly risen upon the 
earth in his brightness and glory, ushering in 
another day of holy rest, such as he had been 
wont to devote, at this very hour, to the work of 
preparing for each of his flock " a portion in due 
season," when, without a struggle or a groan, his 
spirit passed away to him who gave it. The 
solemn peals of the bell spoke to the heart of 
each person in Milan. They told the community 
that it had lost the first man of the place for 
efficiency and usefulness. They told his anxious 
waiting people that they were now " as sheep 
without a shepherd." They told the impenitent 
of his congregation that his labors for their salva- 
tion had closed forever. 



196 MEMOIR. 

On the afternoon of the Monday following, the 
last office of love and respect was performed to- 
wards the remains of the deceased. Ten or twelve 
of his brethren in the ministry walked by the side 
of his bier, and thought of the seasons when he 
and they " took sweet counsel together, and walk- 
ed unto the house of God in company." Of all 
his class-mates, numbering, twenty -two years be- 
fore, one hundred, the writer of this memoir alone 
was permitted to see his clay deposited in its final 
resting place, " dust to dust, ashes to ashes," till 
the resurrection of the just. 



CHAPTER X. 



GENERAL ESTIMATE OF HIS CHARACTER. 

It remains to give a general estimate of Mr. 
Judson's character. The materials for this are to 
be sought in the preceding chapters. These 
should contain, directly or by inference, all the 
traits which are here combined into a whole. In 
this concluding part of the work, then, some re- 
petition is not only allowable, but necessary. 

When we consider the elements which go to 
make up a strong character, we shall always find, 
along with others of a subordinate nature, the 
three following — capacity of deep feeling, tenacity 
of purpose, and strength of intellect. The former 
of these is necessary to give motive power. No 
man accomplishes any arduous and difficult enter- 
prise without the capacity of throwing his whole 
soul into it, and being borne forward by a strong 
and steady tide of excitement — excitement that 
may be indeed calm, because it is uniform, but 
which is, nevertheless, of the nature of an engros- 
sing passion. We frequently meet with men of 
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198 MEMOIR OF 

good intellectual endowments, who seem to be 
capable of accomplishing something valuable for 
mankind, could they but be aroused to energetic 
action. Of such, a common remark is, " What a 
pity that persons endowed with such good parts 
should be so indolent!" But this excitability needs 
to be sustained by tenacity of purpose ; in other 
words, by a strong and determined will. Other- 
wise we shall have a fickle man, given to per- 
petual changes ; to-day, all absorbed in this pro- 
ject, to-morrow, abandoning it for another. Such 
an unstable mind can achieve nothing great. It 
is further manifest that both excitability and 
strength of will must be under the guidance of a 
clear and vigorous understanding, else they will 
be only blind impetuosity and narrow-minded 
obstinacy. "We frequently meet with persons 
abundantly supplied with these two latter quali- 
ties, but without the compass of intellect neces- 
sary to guide them to valuable results. The in- 
tellect, again, has two spheres, that of abstract 
principle, and that of actual life. According as 
the one or the other of these prevails, we shall 
have a philosophical or a practical turn of mind. 

If now we inquire after the combination of 
these elements in Mr. Judson's mind, we find that 
he had, in the first place, great motive power. 
This his physical constitution indicated. He pos- 
sessed what is called the nervous-bilious tem- 
perament. In person he was below the ordinary 
stature, with a large head, short thick neck, thin 



EVERTON JUDSON. 199 

light hair, light eye full of vivacity and varied ex- 
pression, and a pale marble complexion. Upon 
their first introduction strangers were apt to be 
disappointed in his appearance, for it was not re- 
markably graceful and imposing : especially was this 
true in his earlier years, when he was gaunt and 
thin, with a very youthful look. But no one could 
be long in his presence without discerning that he 
possessed great force of character. His feelings 
welled up strong and copious from a deep reser- 
voir within. Of whatever enterprise he took hold 
it was with a strong hand, and he gave himself up 
to an engrossing interest in it. He was like a 
ship under full canvass before a strong breeze, that 
cannot be readily stopped or turned aside in its 
course by any outward force. Hence his impet- 
uosity. To those who found themselves opposed 
to his views and plans this was an unpleasant 
trait in his character, and even his best friends 
were often made uncomfortable by it. Yet it 
should be remembered that without this impe- 
tuous spirit he would not have been fitted for the 
rough encounters assigned to him in the field of 
his labor. With less warmth of temperament he 
might have been more bland and courteous as a 
companion, but he could not have been, as a pub- 
lic man, so efficient. 

Mr. Judson's impetuosity of character made him 
impatient of every thing like stagnation in his 
parish. He was not the man to settle down in 
quietude, and let matters take their course. If he 



200 MEMOIR OF 

could not see his Church advancing in numbers 
and in piety he had no rest. This is strikingly 
manifest in his communication to the deacons, to 
which allusion has already been made. After an 
enumeration of the signs of declension, of which 
the last named are that "the members of the 
Church are diminishing and no sinners are con- 
verted," he adds, — " This state of things has for 
many months filled my soul with anxiety and dis- 
tress. My nights have been sleepless, and I have 
wet my bed with tears. You cannot but know, 
as well as myself, that my preaching and labors 
are productive of no good. I have done what I 
could to arouse the Church the winter past, but it 
is too apparent to need notice from me, that I 
have had almost no co-operation, even from those 
on whom I had a right to lean for help." We 
have seen that his dying testimony to the co- 
operation of his Church was highly honorable. 
But when this letter was written it was a time 
of general apathy and inactivity, and this his sen- 
sitive spirit, ever on the reach for progress, could 
not bear. It disquieted him so as to lead him to 
request that measures might be taken for a disso- 
lution of the pastoral relation existing between 
him and his people. 

Tf Mr. Judson's motive power was great, so also 
was his tenacity of purpose. Hence he was a very 
decided man. He was capable not only of em- 
barking warmly in an undertaking, but of persis- 



EVERTON JUDSON. 201 

ting in it, and pursuing it steadily year after year. 
Of this the preceding pages furnish the proof, and 
no other proof is necessary. The same strength 
of will appears in the fact that he did not readily 
yield his opinions to those of his brethren. When 
he had formed a judgment (which was very apt to 
be right) he stoutly maintained it against the op- 
posing judgments of others ; or, when he had no 
hope of carrying his point, he waived discussion 
upon it, while he did not abandon it. The changes 
which his views underwent on some important 
points were always gradual. They were the re- 
sults of his own observations and reflections, 
aided by the indirect influence of his intercourse 
with other minds. For example, he went into the 
system of protracted meetings with great ardor, 
and for a time, he was much engrossed in them, 
and managed them with no little success. After- 
wards he began privately to express to his confi- 
dential friends doubts respecting their further 
utility; next he took with respect to them the at- 
titude of inactivity ; and, finally, that of open dis- 
approbation. Changes in his views were gen- 
erally after this fashion. His impulsiveness some- 
times led him to take up a plan hastily, but he 
never abandoned it in haste ; nor, while engaged 
in the full pursuit of it, was he apt to treat with 
much deference the objections which others urged 
against it. But, after he had abandoned it, he 
would frankly acknowledge that he had been in 
an error. 



202 



MEMOIR OF 



Mr. Judson's intellectual powers were of a high 
order, and their sphere was the practical rather 
than the theoretic. For philosophical investiga- 
tion and analysis he had no relish. He was nei- 
ther a maker nor a combatter of metaphysical sys- 
tems. His field was the world of actual life, and 
here he manifested uncommon rapidity, correct- 
ness, and comprehensiveness of judgment; dis- 
cerning the various relations and bearings of a 
subject under discussion as soon as the facts were 
placed before his mind, so as to be able, with 
great promptness, to propose a plan and sustain it 
by valid reasons. It was this capacity of rapid 
and correct judgment, united with his peculiar 
energy and decision of character, that gave him 
such pre-eminence in deliberative assemblies. 
Men had learned from experience that his opinions 
were generally correct, and that he would adhere 
to them with tenacity, and sustain them with 
ready argument. And here it is pertinent to re- 
mark that his judgment was pre-eminently of a 
positive character. He was not the man to throw 
cold water upon the undertakings of others, while 
he himself maintained an attitude of inaction. 
On the contrary, his mind was, in an eminent de- 
gree, inventive and fertile in expedients. In any 
emergency he was among the first to propose a 
plan, and his plans, commending themselves by 
their simplicity and feasibility to the good sense 
of others, were very apt to prevail. 

In nothing were his judgment and skill more 



EVERTON JUDSON. 203 

conspicuous than in his capacity of gaining access 
to the minds of others. He had a deep insight of 
the springs of human action, and was able to ope- 
rate upon them with great success. All set and 
formal modes of approaching men he avoided, 
and varied his manner of address to suit circum- 
stances and characters. Of this trait sufficient no- 
tice was taken when his character as a pastor was 
under consideration. But it may not be improper 
to add here a suggestion on the importance of a 
minister's making the human heart and the means 
of approaching it an object of earnest and prayer- 
ful study, since a failure in this respect is most 
calamitous. A stiff and formal way of addressing 
men on the subject of their spiritual interests, 
which knows no variation for either age, charac- 
ter, or office, is a serious drawback to a pastor's 
usefulness ; while felicity of address (which must 
always have its foundation in a knowledge of the 
human heart) is a perennial fountain of influence. 
How much was accomplished in this way by the 
subject of the preceding memoir, will be manifest 
to the reader. 

Mr. Judson had talents for business that were 
rarely excelled. He was wise to plan, and with 
this wisdom he united great energy of purpose 
and promptness of execution. Whatever he did, 
he did strong. " I remember," says a former 
member of the Presbytery of Huron, "a very une- 
quivocal token of respect paid to brother Judson's 



204 MEMOIR OF 

talent of dispatch. At a meeting of the Presby- 
tery in Berlin, it was desirable, for some reason, 
to have the business of the meeting carried 
through with as much dispatch as propriety 
would admit. It was the meeting at which a 
Moderator was to be chosen for the year, and al- 
though brother Judson had been Moderator for the 
year past, he was, I think, unanimously reappoint- 
ed. * * * I do not know that such a circumstance 
ever occured before or since in that body. It was 
a spontaneous and unpremeditated tribute of re- 
spect and confidence to his business tact." Of 
his superiority in this respect no better proof is 
needed than the fact that men of business in Mi- 
lan were much in the habit of resorting to him for 
counsel. There are few men in that place who 
did not esteem it a privilege to avail themselves 
of his excellent judgment and practical wisdom 
when engaged in difficult enterprises. One who 
had his confidence from the first and knew him 
thoroughly uses the following language respecting 
him. " I have heard Judge Choat say that he 
would give more for his judgment in respect to 
any new improvement than that of any other man 
he knew. The same was my opinion. The mo- 
ment he looked at my 'reaper' he said, 'That 
tool will be worth half its cost to you every year.' 
His judgment proved to be correct." Another 
says of him : " In any business which he under- 
took he had few equals. In helping young men 
forward he was very useful, being fertile in re- 



EVERTON JUDSON. 205 

sources. Whatever needed to be accomplished, 
he devised ways and means to bring it to pass. 
This was a striking trait in his character." 



Some subordinate but striking traits in Mr. Jud- 
son's character remain to be considered. One of 
these was his great plainness of speech, proceed- 
ing, too often, to an unpleasant bluntness. This, 
as he himself affirmed, he inherited from his 
mother ; and it is not a little remarkable that it 
was sometimes exhibited, in its most naked form, 
upon his first introduction to strangers. Instances 
are known of his giving unnecessary offense in 
this way in a first interview, for which, in subse- 
quent interviews, he took no little pains to make 
amends, not by a direct apology, but by a kind 
and conciliatory manner. The offense was given 
not through defect of judgment (otherwise than as 
inconsideration is always ill-judged) but from 
heedlessly yielding to the impulse of the moment 
The reparation was considerate, and, in most 
cases, remarkably effectual. He had indeed rare 
skill in making peace with those to whom he had 
given umbrage. Striking cases could be men- 
tioned of his overcoming the dislike of such. It 
was his way to treat those whose feelings towards 
him he knew to be cold as though nothing had 
happened. 



18 



206 MEMOIR OF 

His generosity was known and admitted by all. 
No man had a more profound abhorrence of what- 
ever borders upon meanness in pecuniary transac- 
tions. In the earlier part of his ministry he seems 
not to have had a fixed salary. He took what was 
given him, and a considerable part of it was in 
produce, or, to use the expressive term of the re- 
gion, "dicker." To this he always allowed the 
subscriber to set his own price. If remonstrated 
with on the absurdity of taking oats at thirty-seven 
cents per bushel, when the market price was thirty- 
one, he would reply, " Higgling destroys a minis' 
ter's influence" That the maxim was true must 
be conceded ; and it furnishes a strong argument 
against the habit of paying a pastor's salary in 
this way. Unhappy indeed is the position of the 
man of God, who is compelled to see one of the 
people committed to his spiritual care doing a 
thing which deserves rebuke, and to feel, at the 
same time, that the administration of such rebuke 
will subject him to the imputation of unworthy 
motives. It must not be inferred, however, that 
such littleness as that above described was com- 
mon among his people. On the contrary they 
were, as a body, very liberal in their dealings with 
him, so that, upon the whole, he was a gainer 
rather than a loser by the principle which he 
adopted. 

Of his liberality a striking example has been 
given in his donation to the congregation in Ber- 
lin of $100, when, according to his own statement, 



EVERTON JUDSON. 207 

he would rather have had $350 cash, in regular 
payments, than the total amount of salary which 
he realized. He was generous to a fault. When 
he had his heart set on the accomplishment of a 
good enterprise he would become liable for large 
sums of money, as in the case of the erection of 
his Church. He would part with his last dollar, 
and then borrow money to give away. In this 
way he kept himself in slender pecuniary circum- 
stances. With his superior talents for business, 
his extensive acquaintance, and abundant oppor- 
tunities of profitable investment, he might have 
easily enriched himself. But he was never known 
to engage in a business transaction for his own 
emolument. Towards the close of his life he be- 
came a little more careful in his pecuniary mat- 
ters. One of his parishioners, during this period, 
interested himself in the management of them, 
and thus rendered him very valuable assistance. 
His people also were very generous towards him 
and frequently made him valuable presents. 

Mr. Judson had a social disposition. His warm 
and sympathising spirit instinctively sought so- 
ciety. His habits were as far removed as possible 
from those of the recluse. No where (if we except 
his pastoral visitations to the serious, or to the 
sick and afflicted) did he shine more conspicuously 
than among friends of kindred spirit and views. 
In such circles his talent of uttering striking 
thoughts appeared to great advantage ; and his 



208 MEMOIR OP 

discourse was seasoned with pithy and oft-times 
numerous anecdotes set off by his peculiar tones 
and varied expression of countenance. Of the 
vast influence of social intercourse he had a just 
appreciation, and he strenuously insisted on its 
being regulated in his parish by christian princi- 
ples. To large social gatherings he was always 
hostile, on account of their tendency to extrava- 
gance, frivolity and vain display. His maxim 
was, " As many as can be seated around one ta- 
ble;" and this he defended on the ground that 
some definite rule was expedient, and that this 
was both simple and natural. In like manner he 
once remarked to the author that, when he went 
into his wood-shed on Sabbath mornings for 
kindling-wood, it was his habit to select such 
pieces as could be broken with the hand without 
the help of the axe. " Not that I suppose," said 
he, " that to strike a few blows with an axe on 
Sabbath morning would be in itself wrong, but 
because I find that I need, and the youth in my 
family need, some definite and simple limit." 

Mr. Judson united the jocular turn of his father, 
with the sarcastic vein of his mother; and it 
would seem that the question which should, for 
the time being, bear sway, was determined by the 
state of his animal spirits — we might say, per- 
haps, by the state of his digestion. In one of the 
letters of the Empress Josephine to her daughter 
Hortense, the wife of Louis Bonaparte, there is a 



EVERTON JUDSON. 209 

striking remark on the connection between the 
digestion and the animal spirits and temper. 
" You have not failed," she writes, " to remark 
that almost our entire existence depends upon our 
health, and that upon our digestion. Let poor 
Louis digest better, and you would find him 
more amiable." When Mr. Judson's digestion, 
and consequently the flow of his animal spirits, 
was good, he had an exuberance of humor and 
jocularity. But when, from the influence of ill 
health, his spirits were depressed and his mind 
was in a gloomy mood, he was impatient of little 
annoyances, and his sarcastic remarks would 
come across the feelings of his friends in an un- 
pleasant way. This infirmity he often lamented, 
and it was to him the source of deep sorrow. 
During the last years of his ministry he was 
gradually overcoming his disposition to sarcasm 
as well as his habit of offensive bluntness. 

The most prominent, indeed, of Mr. Judson's 
failings were connected with his impulsive and 
uneven temper. The unfavorable influence of this 
upon his judgment in some remarkable cases has 
been already noticed. It should be added that 
the same trait of character made him somewhat 
liable to personal prejudices. His first impres- 
sions of an individual were strong and lasting, 
and sometimes unfavorably colored by the hue of 
his own feelings. 



18* 



210 MEMOIR OF 

Mr. Judson's piety took its complexion from 
the traits of his natural character that have now 
been considered. It had very little of the ideal 
and imaginative ; but was rather solid and prac- 
tical, keeping ever in view substantial, tangible 
results. It was that vigorous and healthful piety 
which projects itself upon the field of christian 
labor. By his native constitution he was averse 
to the employment of dwelling upon and analy- 
zing his varying frames and feelings; and from 
principle he kept no record of the same. Profes- 
sions of high-wrought exercises and of an intense 
experience he ever regarded with suspicion, be- 
lieving that, in proportion as such exercises are 
genuine, they will naturally manifest themselves 
in the life, without being made objects of direct 
display ; and that the ostentatious exhibition of 
them is the worst kind of vanity and hypocrisy. 
Nothing did he denounce with more severity than 
what he called " pious talking" united with wick- 
ed acting. 

The great doctrines of grace he embraced with 
all his heart, and gave himself up to their influ- 
ence, without troubling himself with metaphysical 
difficulties respecting their relations to each other. 
Of him it may be said emphatically, that he first 
gave himself to the Lord, and then to the Church, 
by the will of God. If, as one has said, a call to 
the ministry is a " passion for souls," then he had 
this call ; and no one simple idea would more 
beautifully harmonize with the entire course of his 



EVERTON JUDSON. 211 

ministry. His motive power was a passion, an 
impulsive, controling emotion ; and it had for its 
scope the salvation of men. That a religion of 
this healthful and substantial character should 
have endured the touchstone of disease and ap- 
proaching dissolution, and burned brightest as the 
lamp of life was expiring, is not surprising. It is 
written that the path of the just shall be " as the 
shining light, that shineth more and more unto 
the perfect day." 



In the general review of Mr. Judson's character 
we see in him a man who had faults, but whose 
failings were far outweighed by his excellent quali- 
ties. He was such a man as one would love to 
have for a companion, a counselor, a neighbor, a 
pastor, an associate in the ministry. He was pre- 
eminently fitted for the time in which he lived, 
and the field of labor which he occupied. He left 
his native place in the autumn of 1829, intending 
to locate himself in Marion county. But God had 
marked out for him another sphere of action, and 
arranged a series of providences which should 
guide him into it. He came at the right time, 
and to the right field for the development of his 
peculiar mental endowments. God, by his provi- 
dence and his Spirit, was already preparing the 
way for an extensive work of grace in all that re- 
gion, from which, within a few years after his ar- 
rival, he and his brethren were permitted to reap a 



212 MEMOIR. 

rich spiritual harvest. When this season of spe- 
cial awakening was past, he still held on his way, 
and exhibited to his brethren an example of suc- 
cessful pastoral labor that cannot but be both in- 
structive and encouraging. It is not for the pur- 
pose of exalting an imperfect mortal that this 
Memoir is presented to the public, but with the 
humble hope and prayer that it may be made con- 
ducive to the edification and usefulness of those 
who may read it, especially of such as labor in the 
work of the gospel ministry. 



